Darkside: Through the Fireplace
by Kurosuzaku
Summary: Formerly "Final Fantasy Madness". Cross mix of a bunch of anime and video game characters. Side-fic to Kiako's story, "Through the Fireplace". Games: FF7,FF10,SO3,ToD,ToS Anime: IY,SK,BC
1. Let the Destruction Commence!

Note: I do not own any of the FF or Inuyasha characters (I own me of course ^^) The story takes place at my house after Chapter 7 of Kiako's story, "Final Fantasy Craziness" (I don't own her story either ^^). I sort of got the chapter name from a quote that "Evil" Bakura from YuGiOh said.  
  
Final Fantasy Madness  
Chapter 1 - Let the Destruction Commence!  
  
I'm Shadowheartless (of course, the one and only ^^). If you read chapter 7 in Kiako's story (better yet, read the entire story), you'll understand what's going on. This takes place during my Christmas break.  
Me, Auron, Cait Sith, Sesshoumaru, Miroku, Cloud, Kimahri and Tifa are heading to my house from Kiako's house. We rode on Sesshoumaru's weird flying thing because it's a lot faster than walking. I heard a distant shouting, saying something like "Hey! Lemme come, too!!" I looked back seeing Wakka running and making cars crash on the road. I had to let him come, me, being a good citizen and all, not causing destruction.. (ok, that was lame.. whatever, onwards with the story) So I let him come home with me. We are finally at home and there's a bunch of police cars outside wondering what had happened and what caused the car crash... er.. crashes.  
"Uh... I don't think you should go outside until the police is gone.." I said worried. "... Wakka? Wakka!?... Oh, shoot..."  
"Oh, he's in the kitchen" said Auron on my couch.  
"IN-THE-KITCHEN?!" I repeated loudly turning slowly in to the kitchen.  
Seconds later I heard a loud BOOOM! and a bunch of "stuff" flew in my face.  
"WAKKA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I screamed extremely loudly (There goes my kitchen...).  
"Wakka in trouble now," said Kimahri walking away from the kitchen.  
Tifa came running upstairs and asked what was going on. I told her my kitchen was gone and that I was going to kill Wakka. I charged angrilly at him the second I said I was going to kill him. Sesshoumaru came and grabbed my arm and I started throwing punches in the air toward Wakka. Everyone started to stare at me (I hate it when people stare... especially at me.). I stopped punching and went to the washroom to get this stuff off my face. It smelled like dishwasher soap and fish and gasoline. No wonder it exploded, I thought to myself. After about half an hour of washing up (trust me, you would've, too), I asked everyone to help me clean up the mess. Wakka on the other hand tried to cook again (I had to kick him out. I told him to go to Kiako's house), Miroku was flirting with Tifa, Cait Sith was playing a snowboarding game against Cloud, Auron was watching Cloud and Cait Sith play, so... only Sesshoumaru and me were left to clean the kitchen.  
"Thanks for helping me clean up." I said throwing away a deformed pot.  
Sesshoumaru just glanced at me and continued cleaning. That's when I realized my parents, my brother and cousin weren't home. I remembered something they said about going to California to visit my cousin.  
"WHAAAAA!!!" I yelled dropping the mop.  
"What is it?" he asked.  
"THEY LEFT WITHOUT ME?!" I yelled some more.  
"Who left?"  
"My family. They left to California without me.. I can't believe it. I missed the only chance to see my favourtie cousin I haven't seen in years." I said sobbing a little dropping to my knees.  
"How could they forget? Aren't they your family?" said Sesshoumaru.  
"Pfft! Not a very good one. I'm usually like the little servent, always serving them. I rarely ever get rewarded." I looked away. "I'm never noticed by anyone in my family unless it's for a job to be done. I'm glad you guys are here though. At least you actually care for me."  
Sesshoumaru arm around me and tears started to roll down. I heard Miroku coming, he just laughed.  
"That's the sappiest story I've ever heard!"  
"Were you listening?!" I quickly turned around shouted.  
He laughed weirdly some more. I gave a really cold stare and charged at him. Sesshoumaru grabbed my arm again and Miroku finally backed off.  
"What the heck's the deal with him?" I said angrilly to myself.  
I heard Miroku flirting some more with Tifa but she just ignored him. I think Miroku's drunk or something. He's usually nice according to the show. Tifa came to help with the cleaning and we finished up in silence. She told me that she knocked him hard on the head earlier, that's why he was acting all weird. The kitchen was still broken but at least the awful smell was gone.  
"Come on, Shadowheartless, let's go see what Cloud and them are doing."  
"Okay..." I said quietly.  
So we headed to my room. Everyone was in there watching Cait Sith and Cloud play the snowboarding game. I sat down on my bed quietly (I'm usually quiet unless I'm angry ^^). Cloud was the first to notice.  
"Why the long face?" he said.  
"Nothin'..." I said gloomily.  
"YEAHH!!! I finally beat you!" cheered Cait Sith as the snowboarder guy passed the finish line.  
"Huh?! What the..?! Damn you! I wasn't looking! That doesn't count!" Cloud complained and they did a rematch.  
Hours later of watching them play, we went to sleep. It was nearly midnight. Cloud and Cait Sith slept in my basement, Miroku wanted to sleep with Tifa but I didn't allow him (he's still drunk and who knows what he'll do). So I made him sleep with Cloud and Cait Sith downstairs. Auron slept in the guest room, and Tifa and Kimahri slept in the living room. There was no where left so Sesshoumaru slept in my room. I let no one sleep in my brother's or parent's rooms because I'm respectful even though they don't respect me. I hoped one day, just one day they'd consider the things I did for them. I let them sleep on my cousin's bed because I hate him.  
Sesshoumaru wasn't tired and I wasn't either so I turned on the PS2 and played FFX-2 ^-^. I was playing a mini game called Gunners Gauntlet. I was on level 8 and I couldn't beat it.  
"Let me give it a try." said Sesshoumaru.  
"Ok, sure." I replied.  
So I handed him the controler and showed him the controls and explained everything to him. In one try, just ONE try, he beat level 8 and skipped all the way to level 10 and beat it. I got a cool accesory called Adamentine. It was so powerful! It gave +100% to HP and a whole lot of stuff!! I sat with my mouth open and stared at the screen.  
"Not bad for first try," he said smiling a little.  
I was still staring at the screen.  
"Uh, hello...?" he said waving his hand in front of me.  
"I can't believe you beat it...." I said in amazement. "THANKS SO MUCH!!" I said happily hugging him.  
"You're welcome..?" he said soffocating a bit.  
"Heheh, sorry," I said blushing and letting go.  
"It's getting late, you should save it and go to sleep."  
"Okay."  
So I saved the game and turned it off. I couldn't sleep, I can almost never fall asleep. I wasn't tired for some reason, I had lots of things on my mind.  
"What's on your mind?" said Sesshoumaru. (Perfect timing...)  
"Huh? Hmm...." I mumbled and turned away. "Couldn't sleep?"  
"I'm a demon, I don't really need sleep like you humans do."  
"...."  
"You're so quiet, no wonder no one notices you."  
"Yeah, I've heard that many times. Everyone says that... Hey, where's Jaken? That imp thingy that always follows you?"  
"I dunno and I don't care..."  
Since my bed was big I let him sleep with me. He put his arm around me and I fell asleep. 


	2. Another Day Another Disaster

Note: (FF crossed with Inu and Shaman King) I do not own any of the FF or Inuyasha characters, I don't own Shaman King or Hao (actually, I own the disks Lol). I do not own MSN Messenger. This story takes place at my house after Chapter 8 of Kiako's story, "Final Fantasy Craziness" (I don't own her story either ). Sorry for the Out of Character-ness!  
  
Final Fantasy Madness  
  
Chapter 2 – Another Day… Another Disaster…  
  
With Cloud, Cait Sith, Kimahri, Sango, Lulu and Red XIII left at my house, things seemed a bit better than before. No Miroku to deal with when he's flirting. But there was Cloud and Cait Sith whom I had to keep away from my PS2 (over playing it way too much). I was bored… Very bored…  
  
"I'm going to the store to buy a new game. Bye," I told everyone and then left.  
  
I took the bus since I couldn't drive yet. When I arrived at the video game store, I took a look around and found an Inuyasha game called "Inuaysha: A Feudal Fairy Tale". So I bought it and went home to play. Sesshoumaru came into my room.  
  
"Huh? Sesshoumaru!" yelled Sango.  
  
"Wait, hold your fire… err, I mean boomerang. He's not here to kill or anything." I told her calmly.  
  
"But…"  
  
"No killing at my house!" I said firmly. Sango kept silent and saw the game I was holding.  
  
"Why is there Inuyasha on that game?" she asked confused.  
  
"It's a fighting game. I heard it was fun. Come on let's play!" I replied.  
  
"Um… Okay."  
  
"You can play too if you want Sesshoumaru." I said but he just turned away and watched as Sango and I played. I was supposed to be good at fighting games… unfortunately I lost… ten to nothing.  
  
"Wow. I'm really getting the hang of this!" she said happily.  
  
"I think we should stop. I've got school tomorrow."  
  
"Okay. Good night SH."  
  
"Good night," I replied.  
  
While I was getting ready for bed Sesshoumaru asked me, "What is this 'school' you speak of?"  
  
"It's where you go to a building and learn stuff."  
  
"Such as?" he asked wanting to know more.  
  
"It's a long story… I have no time to explain now. I've got to sleep."  
  
"Alright, I shall see this 'school' for myself tomorrow."  
  
All of a sudden, I heard an explosion. I knew exactly what happened. Wakka came to my house and decided to cook a midnight snack. He did something wrong to the recipe and it exploded. I gave a sigh and headed to the kitchen.  
  
"I had nowhere to go ya? So I came here and cooked a midnight snack, but something went wrong and it exploded ya?" Wakka said with a worried grin on his face.  
  
I gave my evil stare as he kept saying "I'm sorry ya?" I went back to my room and asked if I could borrow Sesshoumaru's Tenseiga. He handed me the sword and followed out with me to see why I wanted his sword. I walked to where Wakka was and slashed him. Wakka fell to the ground stunned Lulu came running to see if Wakka was okay.  
  
"Why did you slash him?!" demanded Lulu.  
  
"Yeah, I thought it was a rule 'No killing in the house'," said Red XIII  
  
"He's fine," I said.  
  
Wakka was frozen and twitching on the ground and when he finally got up, he said, "What happened? I thought I was a goner ya?"  
  
"Why did Wakka not get cut by sword?" said Kimahri confused.  
  
"A sword that can't cut? Haha!" laughed Wakka.  
  
As he said that I stole Sesshoumaru's other sword, Toukijin and said, "You want one that can?"  
  
"Ehhehh… No, that will not be necessary ya?" stammered Wakka. "Uhh, is it okay if I stay the night?"  
  
"Sure," I replied, "as long as you clean up this mess."  
  
"But that'll take all night!" he whined.  
  
"Exactly," I said walking towards my room. "I will be going to sleep now. Good night, everyone."  
  
My hand was bleeding now because I grabbed the blade of Toukijin by accident. I wrapped it in bandages and went to sleep.  
  
The next day, I was woken up by Sango.  
  
"SH, wake up! You have to go to school now right?"  
  
"Uh huh, that's nice…" I said falling asleep again.  
  
Soon Cait Sith went in…  
  
"SH WAKE UP!!!!!" yelled the cat into his microphone.  
  
"Whhaaa… I'm awake! Sheesh…" I said annoyed.  
  
Soon I got up and got ready for school when I soon forgot that I had no ride to school! I always had my parents to drive me and I can't drive so…  
  
"No worries." said Sesshoumaru as he called forth his 2 headed dragon named Ah-Un to my front yard.  
  
"SH! You forgot to eat breakfast my dear!" shouted Wakka in a girly voice.  
  
(Eh…? My dear?! Why the heck did he call me that? And I already ate…) I thought.  
  
"Heh… Tried to sound like your mother ya?" he said with a nervous grin.  
  
I gave my evil look and took Sango's boomerang and whacked him to Kiako's house (That did NOT sound like my mother!).  
  
"You've got a strong arm there SH," said Sesshoumaru.  
  
"Shall we be going now?" I said.  
  
And with that we were off to school. We arrived in no time thanks to his dragon. Everyone, literally everyone stared at us when we arrived. We entered the building. While putting my stuff away in my locker, I saw Cid, D3pa1, and Kiako come.  
  
"Heya SH. I see you've brought Sesshoumaru along to school," said a familiar voice.  
  
"Yeah. Hey Kiako, I whacked Wakka to your house, sorry, he was getting on my nerves.  
  
"You whacked Wakka to my house? I never saw him" said Kiako confused.  
  
"Oh my gosh… That could mean only one thing…" I said worried.  
  
"HI EVERYONE!" said… Then the bell rang. (Awesome! Saved by the bell… litterally!)  
  
"Hey, Sesshoumaru, we have Phys.Ed class now, let's go," I said.  
  
"What is this "Phys.Ed"?" he asked.  
  
"It's short for Physical Education. Come on, we're going to be late."  
  
We arrived in the nick of time. It seems that iKouseki was sick or something because she was obviously not here.  
  
"Now, has everybody changed for Phys.Ed?" said my Phys.Ed teacher Mrs. K-N (okay so it wasn't Mrs. K-N but I'm too lazy to type the whole thing.).  
  
Everybody raised their hand except me and Sesshoumaru.  
  
"So you have not changed? Well, I'll let you off this time SH. Who's this?" she said pointing to Sesshoumaru.  
  
"Umm.. Sesshoumaru's a foreign exchange student.. umm uhh.. just came to visit" I lied.  
  
"Okay. You can tell Sesshoumaru what we are doing right now. Alright everybody! Get some basketballs and do some lay-ups!" she commanded.  
  
"Basketball?" he said.  
  
"Basically, just get a ball and throw it into the hoops," I answered.  
  
"I, the demon lord of the Western Lands, will not play such a foolish game," he said slightly annoyed.  
  
And with that he sat out the entire period. I lied to Mrs. K-N again said he was ill. And so Phys.Ed ended. Thank goodness! The next class was Math... Kind of funny how Math and Phys.Ed are always beside each other in my time table...  
  
"Okay class. We are doing our Graphs unit today..." said Ms.C blabbing on and on for over half the class. "Here's your homework..."  
  
Me and Sesshoumaru finished our homework quite quickly. I was surprised he even understood what the teacher was saying. After Math was the 7-minute break. I saw Wakka for a split second and walked away quicker.  
  
"Come on. We're gonna be late," I said walking fast, almost running.  
  
We entered Science class, THE most boring class of them all. The teacher always goes off topic and blames our class because we have a million comments to share. And we ended up doing nothing because of that! That was pretty good, no homework/tests so far. Next was Social Studies. I also HATED Social, and LA for that matter because...  
  
"Hey, SH! How's it goin'?" said the teacher. Apparently, he ALWAYS likes to pick on me because I never talk in class. And he talks informally to students when off topic. "Where's iKouseki?"  
  
"Not here..." I mumbled angrily wishing he'd shut up. It's not like he's bad or anything. He's a great teacher, but I hate when he picks on me.  
  
"Hey hey hey! Who's the new guy? A friend of yours?" he asked referring to Sesshoumaru.  
  
"Foreign exchange student." I lied again.  
  
"Cool! Looks like he's from Japan! That's great 'cause were studying Japan, eh?"  
  
I didn't answer. Suddenly the bell rang. Finally he'll be quiet!  
  
"Is this really your sensei?" questioned Sesshoumaru.  
  
"Yes..." I said with a sigh.  
  
After an hour of MORE off topic-ness, it was LUNCH! I was starving! But then I realized I forgot to pack my lunch! Shoot! When I reached my locker, Kiako, Cid & D3pa1 walked to where I was.  
  
"Hey SH!" said Kiako & Cid.  
  
"Hi, hi, hey, hello, whatever... AND QUIT CALLIN' ME "SH"" I muttered.  
  
"Bad day huh?" said Cid.  
  
"Blah..." I replied.  
  
"I do not think she feels like speaking at the moment." said Sesshoumaru.All of sudden there was a giant explosion where the Foods class was.  
  
"I can only think of one thing..." I said.  
  
"Ehh, I think I forgot about the oven, ya?" said the one person I KNOW who could possibly explode everything and maybe put the whole planet in the shadows of doom... "I'm sorry about that, ya?"  
  
There was 'mush' all over me.  
  
"Uh oh, I think SH's just reached her Limit Break," said Cid.  
  
"Wakka?" I said calmly with a grin. "Get over here."  
  
"I think she forgave me ya?" whispered Wakka to Kiako and Cid.  
  
"Not a chance," they both said shaking their head. Wakka followed me anyways outside.  
  
"Ya... wanted... to... see me?" said Wakka trembling.  
  
"Yeah," I replied.  
  
I quickly grabbed him, twirled him around three times and threw him into the sky.  
  
"WWWHHHYYYYY SIIR SH?!" Wakka yelled as he was flying through the sky.  
  
"WOW! Cool Limit Break! What's it called?" asked Cid.  
  
"Hmm... KuroSuzaku's Flying Air Throw of Death?" I replied making up the ! Hey, wait... Did Wakka just call you a 'Sir'?" said Kiako.  
  
I sighed and said, "I won't have to worry about him for awhile."  
  
"Why's that?" she asked.  
  
"I threw him towards your house," I said calmly.  
  
"YOU WHAT?!" Cid and Kiako screamed.  
  
"Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go buy myself some lunch. I forgot to pack mine at home." I said relieved to find that my wallet had some money (Finally! Something GOOD that happened today). And so I bought and ate my lunch. Next block... Language Arts... Great. L.A. went by quickly and I was glad my teacher didn't pick on me anymore. The last block was French which went by smoothly. I packed up my bag and went home. It was quite relaxing flying on Ah-Un. When I finally arrived home, there I saw Wakka, in the kitchen.  
  
"Wakka," started Sesshoumaru, "you might want to leave."  
  
"What? I'm cooking up a "I'm Sorry" dinner for SH, ya?"  
  
"Seriously, she's not in the greatest mood at the moment."  
  
"NONSENSE!" smiled Wakka.  
  
"You'd better do as he says." I said quickly. I looked up and everyone backed off in fear. Even Sesshoumaru looked a little scared. "Wakka... Leave now. Everything you have attempted for me has always gone into a mess. You think I don't mind that you are doing this for me, but I DO mind. If you REALLY want to make me happy, leave this house... AND GIVE ME AT LEAST A DAYS WORTH OF PEACE! That's why I sent you to Kiako's house earlier! Joking is fine, but THIS HAS GONE TOO FAR!"  
  
With all this anger, I stole Toukijin (again) and dashed towards Wakka. Sesshoumaru was unable to stop me. As I was running towards Wakka, I pointed the tip at him and shot a bolt of what it looked like to be lightning and tossed him at and through the ceiling. Wakka was soaring through the air yelling like a little girly girl.  
  
As he was flying out of sight I shouted, "When you return I expect this ceiling to be good as new!!!"  
  
Everyone stared in amazement. "Wow, you were really harsh on him, SH," said Sango.  
  
"If I went too lightly he would have just made a fool of it. By going all the way, he'll know I was serious... I'm going on my computer, now."  
  
"You're not going to eat?" asked Cloud.  
  
"I'm fine." I replied.  
  
I turned on the computer and logged onto MSN. Kiako was online.  
  
Kiako: "Yo SH!"  
  
SH: "Yo."  
  
Kiako: "Wakka came crashing into my house... twice I think since there were two holes in my ceiling."  
  
SH: "Sorry about that. I had a terrible day."  
  
Kiako: "It's alright. I'll take care of him for awhile then."  
  
SH: "Thanks."  
  
Kiako: "I'm gonna turn on my camera k?"  
  
SH: "Sure."  
  
(Camera - Kiako is now on)  
  
SH: "Hey is that smoke behind you?"  
  
Kiako: "Smoke what smo... WHAT?!?! WAKKA!! Sorry, gtg, must take care of Wakka..."  
  
SH: "Cya."  
  
So I closed the MSN window. I felt like listening to Final Fantasy music. I searched for a very long time and there was no FF CDs in sight. Instead I found an Anime burned on CD by my cousin a long time ago called Shaman King. I heard it was a good Anime so I popped the disc in and played it. It was a really awesome Anime and I watched for the rest of the day.  
  
This school week passed by very quickly. I was surprised that Sesshoumaru still wanted to hang around me at school. When I got home (Friday), I walked cautiously thinking that Wakka was still around but then remembered that he was at Kiako's. I relaxed and watched Shaman King some more and finished the series. The main character was Yoh Asakura, his companions were Manta, HoroHoro, Ryu of the Wooden Sword (Boktou no Ryu), Anna Kyouyama, Ren Tao, Chocolove (yes, it's his real name!), and Lyserg. Episode 25 was the first appearance of this guy called Hao, the main bad guy.  
  
"Spirit of Fire... So big and powerful," I whispered to myself as I was watching the end.  
  
Everyone was fast asleep upstairs. I offered to sleep downstairs for today because of the trouble I caused (broken ceiling, getting rid of Wakka). I watched some more of Shaman King. Spirit of Fire's hand came towards the monitor and out of it and grabbed me. I was really freaked out, but too freaked out to call for help. Spirit of Fire along with Hao came out of the monitor.  
  
"Hmmm? Who are you?" asked Hao. I couldn't answer. Hao just smiled and Spirit of Fire crushed harder.  
  
"Tell me, what is your name?" he asked again.  
  
"S-shadowheartless," I stuttered.  
  
"That name is too long. I'll call you SH. So, SH, how did I get here?"  
  
"I... don't... know,"  
  
Spirit of Fire dropped me on the ground and disappeared. Hao walked closer to me.  
  
(Dammit) I thought, (Here I am just watching a nice Anime and all of a sudden a giant spirit comes out of my monitor? Sigh What a great day THIS has been.)  
  
"So, you can see it?" Hao questioned once more.  
  
"See what? The giant red thing that just disappeared?"  
  
"Yeah. Spirit of Fire. Usually only Shamans can see spirits, but when I look at you you're just a puny human."  
  
"What is... that supposed to mean?" I said quietly confused.  
  
"Humans are tiny stupid beings. They don't deserve to exist, after what they did to this planet. All this pollution will surely kill the planet sooner or later. I desire the Great Spirits' power to rid the world of humans and have a world with only Shamans."  
  
"Hmm... Let me show you something." I typed some stuff on the internet and showed him that not all humans are bad. "Many are trying very hard to save the environment. Even if it doesn't seem much, over time it will be worth while. I understand that those bigger cities cause a whole lot of pollution, but this planet will die sooner or later whether or not the humans exist or not." I typed more stuff into the search engine. "See? All planets have a life time, just like every living thing. Even the stars have a lifetime."  
  
"You still don't get it do you? Are you trying to convince me not to kill mankind? Because of the humans, look at what has become of this world. Humans are like a virus to Earth, slowly speeding up its death," he said. "But I'm surprised that a young, stupid human like you possesses such knowledge. You're different than most humans. If you had the right training, you'd make a pretty strong Shaman."  
  
"Really? ..."  
  
"Now, let me show you something."  
  
He put his hand on my head and told my to close my eyes. I saw the same scenes as the Super Notes on Shamanic Powers, except it was different. I can't really explain how it felt... It was as if it was all a dream...  
  
I woke up in my room. Which was weird because I was in my basement...  
  
"Ah, you're finally awake," came a voice. It was Hao's voice. As evil as he is in the Anime, he doesn't really seem all that evil at all once you get to know him. Anyways, I just stared at him, still amazed that he didn't kill me yet because I was a human...  
  
"Heheh... so you survived the Tcho Senjiryaketsu (Super Notes on Shamanic Powers). No ordinary human could do that," said Hao.  
  
"I see." I replied quietly.  
  
The rest of the day went by quickly, and the next day too. I didn't do much at all except think about what had happened in the Tcho Senjiryaketsu. Wakka kept his promise by fixing the ceiling and agreed that every time he cooked, he'd be my servant for one week. Harsh, but whatever. School came around again. This time, Hao came to school with me along with Sesshoumaru. Hao told me that he'd teach me how to be a Shaman. I asked why he didn't just go and take the Great Spirits right now or find a way back. He replied by saying that the Great Spirits only show themselves for 3 months every 500 years. Since in the Anime Shaman King took place a few years ago, the Great Spirits are no longer there. Hao also wanted a strong companion on his side and if he trained me then found a way back, he'd let me live in his Shamans-only world.  
  
During that week, Hao taught me Hyoui Gattai, the most basic Shaman technique. I found a spirit lurking around in my house none other than Phoenix. The others (Cloud, Cait Sith, Kimahri, Sango, Lulu, and Red XIII) were really confused and didn't bother to try and understand, but Sesshoumaru watched me train. I soon mastered the Hyoui Gattai and I was onto my next lesson: Oversoul. When he first mentioned it, I immediately thought about FFX-2 and that Oversoul, where you defeat a certain type of fiend and they Oversoul. This was entirely different. First, I had to choose a medium that somewhat represented my spirit. Then put my spirit into the medium and fuse them. I had nothing in my house that really represented Phoenix except a feather. So I used the feather and got my Oversoul! It was really tiring trying to keep it like that. The energy to keep your Oversoul is called Furyouku (Shamanic Energy). Interesting huh? Well, at that time my computer was on and Kiako was online. I was resting from my training.  
  
Kiako: "Hey SH."  
  
Kiako: "HEYY!"  
  
"Hey SH. Someone is talking to you," said Hao.  
  
"I'm tired. You can talk to her." I replied groaning.  
  
Hao got up and sat down at the computer.  
  
SH: "Hi there."  
  
Kiako: "SH! Took you long enough!"  
  
SH: "I'm not SH."  
  
Kiako: "Then who are you???"  
  
SH: "My name is Asakura Hao. I believe we met at the school."  
  
Kiako: "Oooh, You're that other guy who hangs around SH."  
  
SH: "I'm back. Had to rest from Shaman training..."  
  
Kiako: "Shaman training?!?!?! Since when were YOU a Shaman?!"  
  
SH: "Since 25 minutes ago. I'm tired.. I'm gonna go to sleep."  
  
A/N: Yeah, this was a boring chapter (in my opinion)... I hope you enjoyed it and sorry for the lack of updating this story. 


	3. Off to an Other World

Note: (FF crossed with Inu and Shaman King) I do not own any of the FF or Inuyasha characters, I don't own Shaman King or Hao-sama (actually, I own the disks for SK Lol). I do not own MSN Messenger, I have the program though. This story takes place at my house at around chapters 1-8 of Kiako's story, "Through teh Fireplace" (Which is spelt wrong and I don't own her story either ). Sorry for the Out of Character-ness! Sorry, but I may end this story now. I have run out of ideas here. It all depends on how Kiako's story will continue. Read and enjoy the maybe finale. 

Another Note: The last little bit takes place at the part where Kiako fights the spider dude.

Final Fantasy Madness Chapter 3 – Off to an Other World

It's been nearly a year since the FF characters, Inuyasha characters, and Hao-sama came to this world. Things have been going weird ever since. I wondered how they got here in the first place. The first person to pit the blame on was Kiako. She was the first to witness their appearances so thus it was her fault. No other thoughts came to mind. I was lying on my bed still pondering about this when Hao-sama came into my room.

"What are you thinking about?" he asked sitting down on the chair next to my bed.

"Huh? Oh, I was just wondering how you guys came here, into this world. There doesn't seem to be any explanation as to how or why you got here and I can't seem to think of any."

"Does that bother you?"

"A little. Things have been really different ever since you guys came."

Suddenly the phone rang. I hopped up from my bed and ran to get it.

"Hello?" I said.

"Hey, Kagome here. Is Kiako at your house?"

"No, why?"

"Well, you see, Kiako got sucked into a fireplace and she hasn't returned yet. It's been several days now, and…"

"Whatever."

I clicked off the phone and started towards my room when the phone rang again. I looked at the caller ID "Ornitier Kiako" and threw the phone away. It flew towards Cloud and he dodged it causing the phone to smash into the wall. Sesshoumaru-sama glanced at me. Knowing what he wanted to ask I said,

"I'm not in a good mood."

Walking towards my basement with Hao-sama following me, I heard another one of my phones ring. It was the downstairs one. I hastily walked towards it and disconnected it. I didn't want to waste another phone. Suddenly ANOTHER phone rang.

"Oh for goodness sake!!!" I shouted angrily. Without realizing it I picked up a stone and sent out a shikigami to destroy the final phone located in my parent's room. Unfortunately, now there was a hole in the ceiling.

"Hmmm? You can create shikigamis now," said Hao-sama. "Not bad."

I heard some banging at the front door. I ignored it for as long as possible.

"Why aren't you answering it?" he asked.

"I don't want to be disturbed at this moment," I replied as calmly as possible while still shaking in anger.

A loud yell came from outside the front door saying, "Kaze no Kizu!!! (Wind Scar)" and the door along with half my house came tumbling along with it! Oh man how I was furious! I took out my feather and prepared to oversoul.

"Suzaku in hane! (Phoenix in feather)" I shouted placing my spirit into the feather. Out I came blazing with flares around me and a bright red wing and dark crimson wing with deep blue wing tips and glowing black tail feathers. I zoomed across the stairs and tackled Inuyasha full force!

"What is that?!" exclaimed a shocked Kagome.

I turned around and said, "What do you want Kagome?"

"Eh…heheheh… Well it'd be easier if you came over to Kiako's. I'll explain everything there," Kagome said nervously and quickly.

"If it concerns Kiako then I will not have any part of it," I said sighing. Glancing back for a second I saw Inuyasha still on the ground. I supposed I knocked him out cold. Finally I turned off my oversoul.

"Why not?" Kagome asked. "Isn't she your friend? Friends are supposed to help each other, right?"

"I'm tired, annoyed and most of all annoyed! All I wanted was one FULL day's rest with no Wakka, no explosions, no poking, no noise or anything! Plus if you want me to go on a trip to rescue her you are sadly mistaken. I. Hate. Traveling," I blatted out quickly to her.

Kagome sighed. "I'll make Kiako take Wakka for a few weeks."

I suddenly changed my mind. "When do we go?" I smiled for the first time in weeks, thought it was not a true smile. More like one of those evil ones.

"Also, could you gather everyone else to Kiako's?" Kagome added.

"Anything to be rid of Wakka…" I muttered to myself.

"Alright then it's settled. Meet at Kiako's in 5 days and I'll tell you what's going on." Kagome finally noticed Inuyasha on the ground. "Inuyasha! What are you doing there?"

Inuyasha woke up and carried Kagome to Kiako's house. I walked back towards my house to see everyone at the door.

"We're going to Kiako's in 5 days," I said to them out of nowhere not know why it had to be 5 days.

They said stuff like "huh?" and "what?" and were all dumbfounded.

5 days later… (During those 5 days I had got in contact with Kiako and told her how to beat Yura of the demon hair. I gotta stop helping her these days, she's relying on me too much.)

"Everyone ready?" I asked.

They all nodded

"Ok. Hao-sama?"

He nodded and brought out Spirit of Fire. Everyone got on and we were off to Kiako's. Me and Hao-sama were at the front, the rest were behind or on SoF's (Spirit of Fire's) arms.

"That was an impressive oversoul for someone who only trained that one day," said Hao-sama. "You would have made a good comrade."

"Really?" I said a little surprised. Hao-sama just smiled.

"Kuro Suzaku (Black Phoenix)," he said referring to my oversoul. "Would you like me to call you that from now on?"

"Sure. Um… Thanks. Over there, that's the house, the one with holes in it," I said pointing. I guessed that Kiako hadn't fixed those holes from all the times I threw, kicked, punched, smashed, pummeled, etc… Wakka there. Speaking of which, where was he?

"Siiirr SH!!!" came a voice that I could recognize even in my next life. I was afraid to look down and see Wakka running after SoF waving his arms up and down like a freak, but it was too late.

When we landed I told him my name wasn't SH anymore, it was Kuro. I told everyone eventually. The house was filled with Final Fantasy and Inuyasha characters. I finally spotted Kagome at the fireplace.

"Kiako heard some noise in the fireplace so she checked it out," started Kagome.

"When she opened the door, she got sucked in and we never saw her since then," finished Auron.

"Hmm… She's in the Naruto world," I said.

"Huh? What's this Naruto?" said a familiar voice.  
Not bothering to turn around and speak with that person directly since I knew it was my nightmare in person speaking, I said, "Naruto is an anime show featuring a kid named Naruto and his friends in training to become ninjas under their sensei Kakashi. That's all I really know." "So, shall we go then?" said Cid.  
Almost everyone started walking towards the fireplace.  
"Whoa! Hold it right there!!!" I shouted. "We can't have ten thousand people stampeding into there! I did some research on this portal to the Naruto world and it can't handle so much living matter at a time. This portal is very unstable therefore the time and space continuum will only be able to hold a certain amount of people before it collapses. And if it collapses anyone in there will vanish without a trace from this realm and will cease to exist. The portal will recover though so others can come at a later time." Everyone was silent and staring at me looking like they had NO idea what I just said. I really didn't know what I just said either.  
"To say things in a matter that you may understand, I can only bring along 5 people. Myouga may come along with another as one person because he is tiny. It shouldn't affect the portal too much." "Okay then I'll go with Myouga!" said Inuyasha.  
"If Inuyasha is going then I have to come too," said Kagome.  
"I have to come too!" exclaimed Cid.  
"I'll come as well to steal all your stuff— I mean… I can help!" said Yuffie smiling innocently.

"I will come too!" said Brother (Rikku's brother).

"Er… Why?" I asked.

"I don't know."

"Okay that's 5. You all stay here and do whatever you want but if I find anything is wrong I'll slaughter every last one of you (except Hao-sama and Sesshoumaru-sama of course). Hao-sama, Sesshoumaru-sama, could you please keep Wakka away from trouble?" I said.

"Sure," said Hao-sama smiling. "Here, take these. Give one to your little friend. I found them by your TV after you finished that Final Fantasy X-2 game."

He tossed me some garment grids and a bag of dress spheres and other stuff.

"Arigatou gozaimasu (Thank you very much)," I said. "I'm counting on you to keep Wakka away."

I opened the doors to the fireplace and the others jumped in first. The wind was blowing stronger.

"SIR SH!!! I mean… SIR KURO!!! PLEASE DON'T LEAVE MEEEEE!!!" shouted Wakka at the top of his lungs.

I turned around to see him jumping towards me. "No, Wakka!!!"

It was too late. He was already in with us. The portal was overloading and everything was shaking. Damn that Wakka! He has doomed us all! Things seemed to have calmed down after a minute or so. And we appeared at a battle field it seemed, since there was blood everywhere. I changed into my black mage dress sphere and headed towards the giant spider. I'll have to contact everyone back at my world to tell them that Baka Wakka messed up the portal and only one at a time may go.

We all rushed to the battle to save Kiako. Knowing her, she would be dying as usual. That's why I gotta save her and train her. So she'll stop relying on me every time. Training her will be very fun… heheheh. (Evil look in eyes) Very fun indeed.

"Yosh, ikoze mina! (Alright, let's go everyone!)"

A/N: Yes, my Japanese sucks. I learn by watching anime only ok? Like I said, this may be the last chapter. It was only an add on to Kiako's stories. It all depends on what happens next in "Through teh Fireplace". I hope you enjoyed reading this!


	4. Reinforcements and a Whole New World

Note: (FF crossed with Inu, Shaman King, Naruto, Star Ocean etc.) I do not own any of the FF, Inuyasha, Shaman King, Star Ocean, or Naruto. This chapter takes place from chapters 17 and forward of Kiako's story, "Through teh Fireplace" (Which is spelt wrong and I don't own her story either ). Sorry for the Out of Character-ness! Also, the first little part was taken directly from Kiako's story (much credit to her). I also edited it to match the correct point of view.-8-oo-8- This thing is to separate stuff.'One quotation for thoughts out loud.' "Two quotations for speech."  
If you're playing Star Ocean 3 Till the End of Time, there are HUGE spoilers from this point on. Yes, I end up in the SO3 world… somehow… 

Final Fantasy Madness Chapter 4 – Reinforcements and a Whole New World

"Kuro! Fly back to Konoha and get the others!" shouted Kiako.

"What? Why?" I asked.

"If we have Inuyasha here we'll have a better chance! He's faster and has a better sense of sound and smell! And a giant sword!"

"For once I guess your thinking," I said. "Fine, I'll go, but what about Cid and the others?"

"Bring them too! We need Wakka's accuracy!" Kiako said.

"Fine, I'll be back."

"Don't take your sweet time either! Last time we played hide and seek in my house you gave up and went to get a drink of water and watched TV leaving me in the trunk of my car" Kiako said.

"What? We never played hide and seek at your house," I said.

"Just go!"

I sighed and transformed into my phoenix Oversoul and flew away. After some minutes of flying I thought, 'Uh… What's a Konoha?'

Sighing again, I finally spotted a red dot on the ground. As I flew closer, the dot began to take a form… the form of Spirit of Fire! I landed in front of Hao who was sitting by a fire. He looked at me and smiled.

"Um… Hao-sama, what brings you here?" I said politely.

"Well, being back at that house doing nothing seemed boring since that Wakka person jumped into the portal with you," he replied. "I had nothing to do."

"That doesn't really explain why you came or how even for that matter. I thought the portal was broken, and the time it was supposed to recover has not been expended yet."

"It seems that," Hao started, "time passes by differently in different worlds, I suppose."

"Is that so… Things seem to be getting stranger by the moment. Hao-sama, has anyone else jumped through the portal besides you?"

"Not that I can think of."

"Anyways, my friend, Kiako, wants me to gather reinforcements for the battle we are fighting. Is it alright if you come?"

"Sure, but I can't guarantee that I would want to help."

"It's okay," I said panting a little. "…I still haven't gotten used to this new Oversoul yet."

"You can use Spirit of Fire to gather the rest of your comrades. It would be best if you saved your Furyoku (Shamanic Energy used to sustain an Oversoul) for whatever battle you're fighting in."

"Arigatou-gozaimasu," I said bowing a little.

We flew back to where everyone else was… At least if I knew where they were. I managed to find Sesshoumaru-sama, but not Inuyasha. Oh well, Sesshoumaru-sama is better than him so I guess Kiako wouldn't mind.

"Siiirr SH!" came a distant yell.

"Hm? Isn't that your friend Wakka?" asked Hao-sama.

"Not exactly a friend…" I replied. "I'll go see what he wants."

Spirit of Fire lowered so that I could hop off.

"Oh, sir SH! I was so worried!" said Wakka in a high pitched girly tone about to hug me.

"What the heck are you doing here!" I said sharply smacking him hard on the head. "And my name is KURO!"

"Kuro, sir!" he said saluting.

I rolled my eyes and sighed. "Wakka, make yourself useful and go find Konoha's house and tell everyone that Kiako needs help right now and to come to the battle field. It's the area with a bunch of explosions."

"Yes, sir Kuro, sir, sir of mighty magics of--"

"JUST GO DAMMIT!"

Wakka speeded off towards and into the deep forest.

"Damn," I shook my head, "I don't think I should have entrusted WAKKA to gather the others… Oh well. Let's return to the battle field."

After about an eternity, really only about a few minutes but it felt like forever, I made it back to the field and got off Spirit of Fire. Was the battle over? I turned around and Hao-sama wasn't there. Then I remembered that I didn't teach Kiako how to properly summon! Summoning is a technique where you create portals to a different realm and bring forth a creature. If the summon doesn't complete, it'll leave gaps and can suck another person who can use summons in! All was turning pitch black as I was falling at a really fast pace!

"DAMN YOU KIAKOOOO!" I screamed falling farther and farther into the vast expanse of nothingness.

8-oo-8-

I awoke in a really cold place and it was snowing. It's nice to see snow again, but damn was it cold! Did I mention it was cold? And my hat went missing… Anyways, there seemed to be many monsters walking about and several soldiers scouting the area. One of the nice blood thirsty monsters lunged towards me. I managed to dodge its fierce attack and rolled to my feet summoning up a great Firaga spell. The monster incinerated into dust. One of the soldiers saw me and grabbed my arm.

"You! You're coming with us," he said.

"Let go!" I said struggling.

"Quit moving about!"

"I said LET GO!" I casted Fire on the guy and made a run for it.

A whole horde of soldiers surrounded me.

"No use running, Aquarian! Surrender now!" one of them said.

"Aquarian? What's that?" I answered.

"Don't play dumb with us! You're probably with the ones in that New Aquarian Weapon!"

I gave up trying to convince these stubborn idiots. It seemed like they were in a war of some sort against these 'Aquarians'. "Fine, I surrender."

One of them grabbed me again and dragged me to a giant castle.

"We've captured a stray Aquarian, seemed like this one got separated from the group," said the soldier pushing me forward.

"I see. Bring her to the dungeon," said some fancy looking man.

They put me in shackles and let me hang there. Some other freaky looking dude came out a few minutes later with a whip.

"Sooooo, what was that metal thing? A new Aquarian weapon?"

"I told you, I don't know where I am or what the heck you're talking about," I replied trying to hold back my fury.

"Haha! Don't play stupid on me! You can use Runology so you MUST be Aquarian!" he said about to strike his whip but I managed to catch it with my feet.

"Don't you dare whip ME," I said really angrily and pulled it forward dragging him with it. His head bashed into a wooden pole and fell unconscious. "What. An. Idiot. Heh, I would have casted a spell on him but this works."

Knowing my science facts, I casted Fire on the shackles and then Blizzard then Fire and so on to weaken the metal. Surely enough, I was free.

"Hey, what's going on here!" a soldier yelled. Hey all the soldiers look the same! Not my fault I keep saying 'a soldier'. "What the! You!"

"Geez, you're not gonna lock me up again!" I retorted.

"Don't worry," said a different, elderly voice, "just promise you will cooperate and I will explain."

"Who are you?"

"My apologies, my name is Woltar, leader of the Storm Brigade of Airyglyph," the old man said introducing himself.

"Alright, my name is Kuro. So you want me to join you is that it?"

"Yes, now come with me, we are discussing our tactics against the Aquarians."

I followed this old man who seemed important to some council-like room or something. There were some other people in the room, namely, the king who looked the most important.

"Who's this kid?" said the person with black hair and yellowish highlights at the tips of his hair and two long thin ponytails and purple clothing. Whoa I thought he was a girl before he spoke… Whoops.

"This is Kuro, she is a very strong Runologist it appears, according to the soldiers who found her, and would make a very good addition to our forces," said Woltar.

"Runologist you say? Are you from Aquaria?" questioned the King.

"No, your majesty, I am afraid not. I am not sure where or what that is, let alone where I am or who you are," I said trying my best to be polite.

"My apologies, I am King Airyglyph XIII. We seek your assistance for our upcoming battle. Are you willing to co-operate with us?"

I thought for a moment before answering. "Sorry, I do not have time to fight, I have to return and help my own allies with their fight."

"Either you help us or we will kill you, those are your only choices, kid," said the guy in purple.

"You people don't like making things easy now do you…?" I said quietly. "I guess I have no choice. But I would like to request a favour in return of my assistance."

"Speak your request," said the King.

"I would like assistance from somebody for my journey back. I do not know the dangers that lurk here and I do not wish to find out."

"You seek protection for your journey? Very well then. It is a small favour to fulfill but only if we are victorious."

"Yes, your highness. Thank you very much."

"Kuro, you will join the Black Brigade. Your leader is Albel Nox."

I looked over to the purple guy, bowed to the king, and then left the room following Albel.

"Just don't get in the way," he said. "There's a big battle coming up, so you'd better not chicken out, little worm."

'Oh, so I'm a worm now! I thought I was Aquarian or whatever! Geez, people these days,' I protested in my head.

"Get some rest, we don't want you falling asleep in the middle of battle. We'll be heading out in the morning, don't be late," said Albel walking away.

I found my way to my room after getting lost in the huge castle several times and changed out of the ragged old black mage outfit and into a different one that was lying on my bed, just some simple darkish clothing with a bit of armour and a new staff (I lost mine). Shoot, I didn't bring any of my other dress spheres! Oh, well, I'm stuck as black mage for now; luckly I still have some of my accessories. I quickly fell asleep in my bed due the winter cold.

'I wonder what will happen tomorrow...'

A/N: Sorry it took so long to get a chapter up. This chapter used to be 15 pages so I cut it up into 3-4 chapters instead. I hope you're enjoying this Fanfic as well as Kiako's Through the Fireplace. I've been so busy lately…


	5. Caves!

Note: (FF crossed with Inu, Shaman King, Naruto, Star Ocean etc.) I do not own FF, Inuyasha,Shaman King, Star Ocean, or Naruto. This chapter takes place from chapters 17 and forward of Kiako's story, "Through teh Fireplace" (Which is spelt wrong and I don't own her story either ). Sorry for the Out of Character-ness!  
-8-oo-8- This thing is to separate stuff. 

Final Fantasy Madness Chapter 5 – Caves!

The morning didn't seem any different from the night or evening, all was still cold and it was still snowing outside. I got out of the castle without getting lost this time and followed Mr. Leader and his brigade out into the fields. After a long walk towards the nearest town Kirlsa, we encountered a couple of people riding a cart.

"Shoot! It's the Black Brigade!" yelled one of them, the yellow haired girl, to the other.

"We have to get this to Aquios or else..." the purple haired girl with a super squeaky voice paused.

"Or else what?" said Albel. "Sorry, but you'll have to hand over that cargo of yours."

"Yeah, that's OUR copper ore you're stealing, you scum!" said one of the Black Brigade dudes.

"You are planning to use that for your new weapon weren't you?" said another.

The two girls charged towards us. Albel gave me a look that sorta said "Fight them or else I'll lop off your head" or something. He didn't seem to like me much. I looked down and closed my eyes, concentrating on a weaker spell than usual as Albel and everyone else charged to fight the two young ladies.

"Thunder," I said and raised my staff.

A bolt struck the two and they fell.

"Such weak little maggots," said Albel kicking one of them.

I heard some rapid footsteps coming from in front of me. A blue haired guy with a sword, a big yellow haired dude, and a red-head lady, who looked like an assassin with those cool twin daggers, came running into the scene.

"Albel Nox! How dare you do this to my people!" shouted the red-head.

"What, these scum? They didn't put up much of a fight, they dropped like flies! Hahahahaha!" laughed Albel.

"A staff?" I heard the blue haired guy whisper referring to me.

"She a Runologist from Aquaria?" asked the yellow dude.

"Why are you with the enemy? You defy the will of Apris!" said the red-head to me.

"I don't know what you're talking about, but my orders are to rid the Aquarians," I said. "I don't care what happens here, as long as I can return to help my own friends with their battle."

And with that, Albel and a couple of other soldiers and I all charged at the group of three whoever they were! I took on the blue dude, the soldiers took on the yellow dude, and Albel took the red-head.

His sword and my staff clashed together fiercely with every attack. I couldn't get away fast enough after his slashes so I could only block for that while.

"That's it, play time is over," I said growing impatient and flying back with a brief Oversoul in attempt to cast a spell.

"Huh!" he shouted.

"Flare!"

A giant explosion came in front of him and lashed him to the other side of the field of rocks. I glanced over to Albel and the others, it seemed they won or drew actually. Everyone was injured and couldn't move.

"What are you... waiting for! Go and... finish off... the enemy!" yelled Albel.

I instead healed everyone with a weak spell; I haven't mastered white magic yet...

"What are you doing!" His voice was burned in fury as he slowly got up.

The three people whom we were fighting got up and retrieved their cargo.

"Let's go Cliff," said the blue haired guy to the yellow dude.

"What about this guy, Fayt?" said Cliff.

"It's like he said before, 'An easy win was never my style,'" said Fayt.

"!" Albel looked up surprised.

"Yeah, I don't like 'trouncing weaklings' either!"

"What about her?" said the red-head.

"Just go before I change my mind," I said bluntly and looking away.

"Thank you," said Fayt bowing and then left with the other two with their cargo. "Let's go, Nel, Cliff.

"Why the heck did you let them go!" yelled Albel grabbing me.

"I will never... kill another..." I replied looking away adding silently, 'Unless it's Kiako or Wakka.'

It seemed he had no obligation to say anything else and so he tossed me aside and started to walk back towards Airyglyph. He was pretty injured from the battle, even after I used that healing spell. He didn't seem to have much energy left in him.

"Cure."

Albel glanced back slightly surprised that his wounds were healed and continued to walk forward, and I, following after him.

8-oo-8-

We were greeted at Airyglyph by Vox, the captain of the Dragon Brigade. I wasn't really expecting a warm welcome but... suddenly everyone, the soldiers, drew their weapons at me. After numerous attempts to escape Vox's grasp, he finally managed to lock me up in the dungeon. I guess I did deserve it; I didn't do as I was told to.

8-oo-8-

It was several days to nearly a week, I think, after that whole copper ore thing. The final battle of the war was on at this very moment. The castle was nearly empty; only the sound of the wind was lucid through the dungeon window. I had no will to go and escape only to be captured again; too much hassle. As the thought of just getting myself off these shackles and staying here passed through my head, I suddenly heard the door open and looked at Woltar standing before me.

"What are you doing here? Thought you'd be fighting in that war?" I said.

"It seems an outer force is attacking both Airyglyph and Aquaria," he said. "We have formed a truce with the Aquarians and we would like you to fight with them."

"Them?" I looked farther up the hall out the dungeon and saw the blue-head, yellow-head and red-head along with Albel outside the door. "Hmph. You can leave me here to die for all I care..."

"Quit your bickering and let's get outta here already, little worm!" said Albel walking up to me and slashing at the shackles. "We've wasted enough time."

I fell off the wall and onto the ground. I got up and realized my weapon wasn't here.

"Alright, then we're off to the Urssa Lava Caves," said Fayt.

Albel walked past me and threw me my staff.

"Um...Thanks."

8-oo-8-

We were at the inn of Airyglyph. It seems like something called Fol is the currency of this world, unlike Gil in your traditional Final Fantasies.

"We haven't really properly introduced ourselves, I'm Fayt Leingod."

"Cliff Fittir."

"Nel Zelpher."

There was a new kid here. He had cute ears and a racoon-like tail.

"The name's Roger! Pleased to meet ya!"

And a new girl I haven't seen before. She had blue hair and a cool gun.

"I'm Maria Traydor."

"My name is Kuro Suzaku. And sorry about earlier..."

"You don't have to apologi--" started Fayt.

"There's no need to apologize to these maggots. They got what they deserved," interrupted Albel. Everyone gave him a strange look. I looked away quietly laughing.

"Yeah... Um, so why are we going to these lava caves?" I asked.

"These flying celestial ships interfered with the final battle of the war causing many tragedies to both Airyglyph and Aquaria," explained Nel. "We need to capture a Marquis, a great dragon that will be able to carry our Runological weapon, the Thunder Arrow"

"Yeah, so we can shoot down those cocky flying bastards!" said Cliff.

"So will you help us?" asked Fayt.

"It seems 'someone' already made my decision... I would've liked better at the dungeon..." I mumbled glancing at Albel. "Er... I mean, I'll be glad to help!"

"Alright everyone, let's get some shut eye, won't wanna be tired while trying to get there," announced Cliff.

8-oo-8-

I went to buy some supplies before going to sleep and found something very interesting that would make a good gift for Kiako. Intellect Berries! If and when I met up with her, I wanted to test these to see if they really work. Later that night I was sound asleep, peacefully dreaming away... when all of a sudden a sword came straight towards me; I managed to wake up and dodge the sword which stabbed into my pillow.

"Holy geez! You nearly gave me a heart attack!" I whispered loudly.

"Calm down. I was only practising my aim. Anyways, follow me," said Albel grabbing my arm and yanking me outside.

"What is it?" I asked Albel who finally let go.

There was a long pause.

"Well, if you've got nothing to say I'll just go back to sleep."

"Wait..."

"If you have something to say, please say it now! I'm freezing cold!"

"Do you hate me?" he said so quietly I almost couldn't hear.

"What kind of question is that?"

"Just answer it!"

"...No... Not at all really... but it seems more like you hate me..."

"What make you think that, little worm?"

"You nearly killed me?"

Albel just laughed.

"Well, I'm going back to sleep, good night," I said.

Just about to step through the door, I realized it was morning and heard Fayt, Cliff and Nel walk down the stairs.

"Oh, you're already up?" Fayt said.

"Yeah... Thanks to a certain someone..." I mumbled with my eyes all droopy wondering if Albel laughed because I made him laugh or because he made me get up so early. Everybody just loves to pick on the newbies around here.

8-oo-8-

The walk to Urssa Lava caves would have been longer if we didn't get to ride the cool dragons! Damn, was it fun to ride on one! I didn't use my Oversoul to fly mainly because I would have to explain everything about spirits and stuff... We managed to reach the Bequerel Mountain Path via dragons.

"From here we must walk," said Nel. "There are feral dragons ahead, so be careful."

"What's wrong?" said Cliff noticing my sluggishness

"Nothing…" I replied speeding up my pace.

And up the freaking mountain we went and then we reached a cave!

"Ugh... More walking?" I protested.

Beyond the cave there was a... a... another cave? More like some ruins actually.

"This world is so screwed up..." I mumbled quietly.

Beyond THAT cave was finally the Urssa Lava Caves! If I calculated the directions right, we should have been outside on the other side of the mountain... And how can there be a lava cave if... Oh, you know what? Screw this.

"Damn it's hot in there," I said.

"They don't call it the Urssa 'Lava' Caves for nothing, you know," said Albel.

I suddenly felt faint because of the heat waves emanating from the cave and because of lack of sleep and collapsed onto the ground.

"Are you okay?" said Fayt looking... all... blurry...

A/N: This chapter was a bit useless, sorry. I'm trying to speed it up as much as I can without having to skip so much. Thanks for reading so far. Be sure to read Kiako's story and see what the heck she's up to!


	6. The Place Where I Belong

Note: (FF crossed with Inu, Shaman King, Naruto, Star Ocean etc.) I do not own FF, Inuyasha, Shaman King, Star Ocean, or Naruto. This chapter takes place from chapters 17 and forward of Kiako's story, "Through teh Fireplace" (Which is spelt wrong and I don't own her story either ). Sorry for the Out of Character-ness!  
-8-oo-8- This thing is to separate stuff.  
WARNING! Major spoilers for SO3!

Final Fantasy Madness Chapter 6 - The Place Where I Belong

I awoke in the cave/ruins before the Urssa Lava Caves.

"She's finally awake," said Cliff. "If you were tired, you should've said so, we could have taken a rest."

"Damn it... Sorry," I said.

"Apologizing again?" said Albel shaking his head.

"Yeah yeah I know, 'you don't need to apologize.' I heard that already. I'm just getting in the way and slowing you down. All I wanted was to get back to the world I was at before I came crashing here and help my friends fight their battle," I said without realizing what I just said.

"Another world?" said Fayt. "You mean you're not from this planet either?"

"Crap... Ok. So I'm not from whatever place this is, I thought you would realize that sooner or later. I'm originally from a place called Earth, but thanks to a certain friend of mine, these portals started to appear and we've been getting transported to different worlds. I have to return to this other world to finish up a battle. I was hoping another portal would open somewhere but..."

There was a brief pause.

"She's from Earth?" I heard Fayt tell Cliff.

"It appears so. Heheh, seems like nobody cares about your precious UP3 (Underdeveloped Planet Protection Pact)," said Cliff.

"I think I'm feeling a bit better now, thanks. Let's move on," I said walking towards the opening to the lava caves.

These crazy fire based monsters were no match for my ultimate magic of doom! Blizzard magic worked like a charm and before we knew it, we were at the entrance to yet another cave but blocked by rocks. How could I tell? There was a weird sort of crest at the very top of the door. And strangely, a piece of wood beside a pool of lava does not seem to burn...

"Now what're we supposed to do?" asked Cliff.

"I can handle this no problem," I said. "Everyone stand back."

"But Runology would be able to destroy this kind of rock," said Nel.

I readied myself for a summoning. I know that my magic alone would be able to cut through that simple hunk of rock, whether protected by a spell or not, but I haven't summoned in a while, so I might as well.

"Roaring thunder that responds the light, searing power that binds your might, heed my call and come forth..."

Many monsters came and tried to cancel my summoning but this was not a normal summon, it was a Guardian Force (GF from FF8). My creature was protecting me from their blows.

"Hurry, more are coming!" shouted Fayt.

"Quetzalcoatl!"

The great GF of electricity flew down from above and incinerated all the monsters and the rocks that were blocking our pathway with its all awesome lightning.

Everyone was staring in amazement. Unfortunately, my Ragnarok accessory only works with magic (Cheap piece of junk), so my MP got depleted by quite a number, more than usual, maybe because that this world has a different magic system. I could tell for sure now that this was a game I knew called Star Ocean.

"Who knew such a small girl could pack such a punch," said Cliff.

"I guess I should take that as a compliment," I said. "Shall we move on?"

"So I guess she really is from another world," I heard Fayt say.

Dragon... A really huge freaking dragon... was sitting just ahead of us.

"I really hope that the Marquis would be willing to go along with our proposal," said Nel.

"It won't be that easy, fool," said Albel.

"What did you say!"

A low thunderous noise shook the earth. The dragon awoke.

"Who dares to disturb my slumber?" said the giga-dragon.

"I am Nel Zelpher, agent of Aquaria. We've come to request the Marquis's aid, your excellency," said Nel kneeling.

"A maiden of Aquaria? Speak your purpose."

"Yes, your excellency. A great threat is menacing these lands. We need your excellency's support to stop it."

"Hmph. I sensed the agitation outside. What would you have me do?"

"We'd like you to bear the runological weapon we developed, so that we can deal with this threat."

"Imbeciles! Why should I carry something made by human hands! I am great and ancient, and you are nothing. How could you think I would acquiesce to such a foolish request?"

"Even so, we cannot leave until you agree!"

"Nel, forget it. Turkeys like this need to be smacked around a bit before they'll listen," said Cliff holding out his fists getting ready for battle.

"Now that's a first. We're both of the same opinion," said Albel drawing his sword.

"We shall have to force you to listen if you refuse to cooperate," said Fayt also drawing his sword.

"You are free to try. Convince me of your worth and I shall listen to all you have to say!" the Marquis roared.

"We'll hold you to your word, Your Excellency!" said Maria drawing her gun. Roger drew his axe and I finally drew out my staff.

"It is a pledge I shall not have to keep"  
Each step of that thunderous monster rumbled the ground like an earthquake. We managed to defeat him with great struggle. His fire was nothing my Oversoul couldn't handle. But his physical attacks really hurt!  
"Not bad for mere humans. This shall be the first time in ages that I would have had to truly earn my name"  
"What? Again!" I yelled.  
I struggled to cast a healing spell on everyone before the battle started again. After a long cruel fight, we finally beat him again.  
"...To live 700 years only to be defeated by the hands of meagre humans"  
"You will keep your word?" said Maria.  
"I have no choice. Breaking one's word is a despicable act, though it is mortifying to serve your kind. You may ride on my back, small yet powerful humans, I shall abide to whatever you desire"  
We rode on the dragon back to the castle of Aquios, damn was it cool to ride on a dragon again. This Marquis's name was Crosell it seemed. Everybody got off in such a hurry.  
"Everyone get ready at once!" Nel shouted to her people.  
We all entered the castle and ran to the top to spoke with their queen. It seemed that King Airyglyph XIII was here as well.  
"To think that you were able to capture the Marquis..." started the King.  
"No one captured me. I only agreed to assist you a bit. Do not misread the situation foolish king," answered Crosell from outside.  
"So then who will ride him? I was hoping some of the Dragon Brigade"  
"Unacceptable. Only the ones who personally requested my assistance may ride me"  
"We have no choice then"  
When the heck was I going to return, I bet the Naruto world is probably dead by now... Right after this I'm gonna look for a way out of here.  
We all rode on Crosell to fight off these red, weird looking, futuristic ships. We managed to hit them once but then they started to run away chasing after another ship that these guys call the Diplo. Suddenly some other beam shot the red ships and then they vanished.

Fayt, Cliff and Maria seemed to be talking about some weird stuff I don't know, but they said some beams were headed for Earth! Err... Star Ocean was just a game, so the real Earth couldn't be... I made my decision quickly jumped off Crosell.

"What the! Hey, what the heck are you doing!" yelled Cliff.

"It was nice meeting you all, but I have to find a way back! This is taking way too long and by then, everyone would've died!" I shouted. "Bye!"

I concentrated on forming an Oversoul to fly on. Flaring black wings opened up by my side and I took flight. I had no clue where I was going. I just flew wherever my wings took me.

A/N: I know this Fanfic is going all weird. But while Kiako is fooling around in the FFCC and Halo world, I have to go fly around and save people! Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the fic so far! 


	7. Link of Return

Note: (FF crossed with Inu, Shaman King, Naruto, Star Ocean etc.) I do not own FF, Inuyasha, Shaman King, Star Ocean, Naruto, SD Gundam or Halo. This chapter takes place from chapters 17 and forward of Kiako's story, "Through teh Fireplace" (Which is spelt wrong and I don't own her story either ). Sorry for the Out of Character-ness!  
-8-oo-8- This thing is to separate stuff. 

Final Fantasy Madness Chapter 7 – Link of Return

I finally realized that I was headed towards Kirlsa. As I was gliding in the midst of my thoughts, my face to the sky, I spotted some bunch of dots above me, on the ground in reality. Twirling around I realized I was feeling tired. NO! I can't get tired now! Flying out of control I was getting closer and closer to the dots which, in time, turned into people holding guns. The one in particular with a katana looked strangely familiar. I tried to head for the one who was about to shoot.

"Hyaaa!" I yelled.

Crashing into the person made him mess up his shot and I fell off the wall of the arena I was apparently at.

"What the… Kuro?" I heard a familiar voice say. It was Fayt.

"Oh, hi. I didn't think we'd meet again so soon," I said.

"Uhh, I'd hate to interrupt the happy reunion but…" said Cliff.

I turned to look at the angry person whom I crashed into.

"YOU can die first then!" the weird guy yelled pointing the gun at me.

He pulled the trigger. I was about to block with my staff but someone rushed in front of me and took the blow. He yelled and fell to the ground.

"Albel!" I shouted. "What are you doing here!"

"You should… be asking that yourself… This… is my turf… Thought I'd drop by… and look… what happened." Albel fell unconscious.

"I'll kill you all," I said getting up blinded by rage. Everything else was a blur.

8-oo-8-

I awoke in a foreign room in a nice little bed.

"Where… am I?"

The door ahead of me slid open.

"You're finally awake, I'm glad you're alright," said Maria. "You are in the Diplo. To put it simply, this is our spacecraft."

"What happened?"

"You mean you don't remember?"

"Last thing I remember was that Albel saved me… Wait… 'ALBEL' saved me!" I said confused and surprised.

"Come on, everyone's waiting."

I exited the room and followed her to another room. These automatic doors are really handy.

"We're off to Moonbase then," I heard Fayt say. "Oh you're awake."

"Oh you're awake. Is that all you have to say?" I retorted. "By the time you're done saving the universe let me know!"

I returned to my room. The last thing I haven't tried yet was fail to summon. That's what Kiako did; maybe it would work with me. The thing was how to do that? Failing is impossible for me. This really sucked.

'I think I should apologize…'

Walking back, I saw Fayt just down the hall coming towards me.

"Um… I'm sorry," he said. "I'll be sure to find a way for you to get back to where you came from right after I go to Moonbase for some important information.

"No need to apologize. I think I should be the one apologizing. I was just… angry. Don't take it too seriously if I do it again, I easily grow impatient. Anyways, what's so important that you have to go to this Moonbase place?"

"Well, you see… I'm not exactly who you think I am. Recently I found out that I was a weapon to be used for the sake of the galaxy. My father had done forbidden research on genetic modification, I was his first experiment. I need to go to Moonbase to find out more on this research."

"Wow… Now I feel really bad when I yelled at you."

"Don't worry about it."

Sensing a presence behind me I quickly twirled around and drew my weapon to find that everyone had heard our conversation.

"What part of privacy do you not understand?" I said glaring them and lowering my weapon. They all just looked about innocently and scratched their heads.

"Well, you were standing in the middle of the hallway," said Cliff shrugging.

We felt a huge rumble causing some of us to fall down. It seemed like someone was attacking us so ran to the bridge of the Diplo.

"We're under attack!" said one of the crew people.

"By what?" asked Maria.

"They call themselves the Executioners! They've shot the engines! We've been knocked into the orbit of a planet! With the Diplo's engines like this we can't escape the gravitational pull! We're going to crash!"

A holographic screen popped up at the front window-like thing depicting an image of a six-winged bahamut!

"Everybody! Get into a pod it'll be a lot safer! Who knows if we can survive this crash! Hurry!" said a yellow haired lady who was one of the crew people.

Everyone had got into a pod that could hold two. I was still looking for one that wasn't full.

"Get in you fool!" said Albel yanking me in.

This pod seemed automatic. That's a relief; none of us would be able to operate it.

"INITIATING LAUNCH POD… PREPARING FOR EJECTION…" said a computer voice.

It shot into space as the Diplo exploded into pixels then vanished without a trace. I caught a glimpse of several other pods outside which must have been the others' pods. Good to know that they're safe. All the pods seem to be heading towards this cloudy pinkish browny planet.

"I wonder what kind of planet that is," I said to myself and apparently the computer heard me.

"THE DESTINATION YOU ARE HEADING TOWARDS IS PLANET STYX. ENTRANCE TO THIS PLANET IS PROHIBITED BY THE PANGALACTIC FEDERATION. DUE TO EMERGENCIES, THIS POD WILL LAND ON THE SPECIFIED PLANET IN APPROXIMATELY 2 HOURS."

"Where is that voice coming from?" asked Albel.

"It's coming from the pod we're riding in," I answered. "It's called TECHNOLOGY."

"Hmph…"

"I'm gonna go to sleep. Hey, computer… voice… person… please wake me up half an hour before we arrive at this Planet Styx."

"AFFIRMATIVE."

8-oo-8-

I awoke before the computer voice was supposed to wake me up. Looking across me, I saw Albel just staring out the window. I also started staring at the star ocean outside us.

"Hey, smile once in a while would you? It seems like it's the end of the universe or something," Albel said out of nowhere startling me a bit.

"Almost everyone tells me to smile… whether it is my teachers or even my classmates. I don't really belong here," I sighed. "I've been betrayed once by best friends several years ago. A great friend had abandoned me in the recent year. All I have left is one friend and an idio-- I mean… another… friend… I never really considered my family as friends. Anyways, I like being alone somewhat. It's hard to trust people these days…"

Albel had looked away from the window and glanced at me instead.

"Crap did I just say that out loud!" I asked. He nodded slightly. "Hmph, it's not like you're ever 'happy' either so quit that look on your face."

"I was born and raised in Kirlsa. If it weren't for the war I would have still been there instead of at Airyglyph," Albel said changing the subject. "My father risked his life to save me during the Ascension to the Flames ceremony which bonds a dragon with its owner." He lifted up his claw. "I failed to complete it."

"Oh… Sorry."

"Don't pity me, fool."

"You're the one who started this conversation."

He had nothing more to say. I did some research on Planet Styx as well as the planet I was on before, Elicoor II. It seemed that there was a Time Gate on Styx which was probably the reason why the Pangalactic whatever forbade anyone from entering this place…

"ENTERING PLANET STYX ATMOSPHERE; UNKNOWN SHIP DETECTED."

I peeked outside to see a six-winged bahamut staring its fearful eyes straight at mine.

"Damn, those Executioners or whatever! One of them found us!" I said.

"Way to state the obvious!" said Albel as the pod rumbled and shook vigorously from a hit from some cannon.

"MAIN POWER DOWN."

Another beam hit us and blew open a hole at the top in which vast amounts of air rushed in. I caught a glimpse of what was attacking us… It looked like Bahamut with six wings!

"Come on! Jump!" shouted Albel getting ready to abandon the pod.

"Are you crazy!" I yelled back as he grabbed my arm and jumped out dragging me with him just when the ship exploded. "AHH!"

8-oo-8-

We were flying! Well, not exactly… Okay, so we were falling from 12345 metres in the air and we were about to die. Suddenly Hao-sama's image flashed in my mind out of nowhere. I instantly had an idea.

"Oversoul, Kuro Suzaku!"

A great flaring Phoenix with fiery crimson and indigo feathers opened its wings giving a cry of pride. Albel and I landed on its back as it flew down to where the others were burning all the Executioners in its path. Finally landing, I collapsed on the ground. I heard someone say, "Wasn't that the thing from the Kirlsa Training Facility?"

8-oo-8-

'So that's what happened back at Kirlsa… I seem to be collapsing a lot lately,' I thought floating through the infinite darkness.

'You've been over using your Furyoku,' said an echoing voice whom I'd recognize anywhere.

'Hao-sama? How can you be here? I'm unconscious and at some faraway planet…'

'Apparently, your spiritual energy is very easy for me to find. I'm communicating with you telepathically of course.'

'What's going on back at the other world?'

'Hm? I just contacted you after you disappeared through that portal.'

'I guess time does flow differently in different realms.'

'Indeed.'

"Kuro?" said a different voice off in the distance.

'It seems my time is up for now. I'll see you soon, Kuro.'

"Kuro! Wake up!"

A/N: Ah yes, Planet Styx. I like the song for it, Interval of Freezed Time (Interval of "Frozen" Time, if you want it grammatically correct). Also, the blonde haired lady back at the Diplo was Mirage, a character you get in Disc 2. You'll love the next chapter, someone you all know finally makes her appearance!


	8. Death Bringers

Note: (FF crossed with Inu, Shaman King, Naruto, Star Ocean etc.) I do not own FF, Inuyasha, Shaman King, Star Ocean, Naruto, SD Gundam or Halo. This chapter takes place from chapters 17 and forward of Kiako's story, "Through teh Fireplace" (Which is spelt wrong and I don't own her story either ). Sorry for the Out of Character-ness!  
NOTE: Some parts were taken from Kiako's story, credit goes to her. I edited it so PoV would match.  
-8-oo-8- This thing is to separate stuff.

-8-oo-8-

Waking up for the 3rd or 4th time throughout my journey in the Star Ocean world, I saw everyone standing before me. A new person seemed to have joined the party, some brown haired girl carrying a staff.

"You know I'm gonna apologize again?" I said.

"You're no Earthling I've seen before. How did you summon that black turkey thing?" said Cliff.

"I'm a shaman. And my Phoenix is NOT a turkey!"

"This also happened back at the Kirlsa Training Facility," said Fayt.

"And at the Urssa Lava Caves," added Nel.

"It seems everyone is alright," said the brown haired girl helping me up. "I'm Sophia."

"I'm Kuro."

"Now that we're all united, let's get the heck off this planet. The Aquaelie is waiting on the other side," announced Cliff. "We have to hurry or those Executioners'll come back."

"Wait, I'm not coming with you. That's the Time Gate behind you isn't it?" I said.

"Yeah, but it's forbidden by the Pangalactic Federation," said Fayt.

"I'm not from this realm so does it really matter?"

"I guess not..."

"Anyways, it seems that gate there is my ticket back. It was really nice meeting you all," I said but added silently, "Though, I gained nearly nothing by coming here."

"It was nice meeting you too," said Fayt.

"We've just met and now you have to leave. Please watch out for your self," said Sophia.

"It's been a real blast," said Cliff.

"See ya around!" said Roger.

"Be careful in your fight," said Maria.

"May the will of Apris be your power," said Nel.

"I'll be joining in your fight," said Albel.

"Bye... Say what!" I said flabbergasted along with everyone else.

"You heard me. A new world sounded thrilling at first, but a new realm should really be amusing."

"Fine. I'm gathering comrades anyways," I said not bothering to argue with him. "See ya everyone else!"

Watching them leave was pretty hard. I'll find a way to contact them again. I'll just get Kiako (or Wakka) to screw something up and voila, we go on another journey to nowhere land...

I turned around towards the gate.

"How do you work this thing?" I said scratching my head.

"I thought you did research on this thing back when we were on the pod," said Albel.

"Most of the information was inaccessible, not my fault. All I read that seemed interesting was that this thing had a will of its own or something."

I studied the gate and its structure trying to figure out how this works. It had some circular thing in the middle, two rounded off rectangular frames, one around the other, and some stairs. Suddenly, the gate's inner frame moved around so that they were perpendicular. I heard a loud cry come from the Time Gate itself as giant electrical bolts scrambled in all directions.

"Get down you fool!" shouted Albel pushing me over. The electricity stirred up a lot of dust when it finally stopped.

"You know, you don't have to protect me every time something happens. I can fend for myself," I said putting the Intellect Berries back in my bag when they fell out. "But it's a different matter if you think I'm stupid... in which I'm not."

"Whatever..." he said simply.

The dust started to clear as it revealed a person with cat ears, a bunch of tin men of many colours, Light Blue, Dark Blue, Aqua, Maroon, Pink, Red, and Orange, and a green tennis... ball...

"Oh my god..." I said shaking my head horrified staring at the people before me.

"What?" asked Albel glancing to me.

"It's... It's the death bringer and her band of morons...!"

"Wha... It's just a stupid cat thing, what's so scary about that?" said Albel getting up.

"Stupid is barely the beginning. That's why I bought these back at Airyglyph," I said holding out the Intellect Berries.

"You sure it'll work?"

"Hopefully at least increase her intelligence to that of a 'normal' person."

"SEPHIROTH!" shouted Kiako running towards me.

"...May I borrow your katana?" I said grabbing it anyways. I love doing that, taking WHILE asking.

"WHAA! IT'S HIS MASAMUNE SWORD!" she yelled happily still running.

I smashed the dull end on her head and she fell over. I was somewhat surprised she knew the name of Sephiroth's sword.

"Kuro! I can't believe you're here!" she said instantly hopping to her feet.

"Me neither..." I said weakly. "Oh, here's your katana back, sorry."

"Who's that lady over there?"

I smashed her again with my fist. "He's not a freaken female! This is Albel Nox of Elicoor II, born in Kirlsa Mining Town of Airyglyph territory, 24 years old, and weilds a katana and a claw."

"Eli-wha?" she said.

"How do you know so much about me?" Albel asked giving me a weird look.

"I did some research back at Airyglyph when I got lost in the huge castle. Here I brought a gift for you, Kiako," I said handing over the Intellect Berries. I would have given her a Mandrake (instant death to whom ever eats it) but I wanted to have at least ONE intelligent conversation with her.

"These better not be poison," she said studying it for a moment.

"Just eat it!" I shouted.

"Mmmm! They're sweet! Do you have any more?"

"I wish I did."

"Hey, what's that weird circle over there?"

"It's a Time Gate, the thing you came out of! And it's a RECTANGLE!" I shouted in frustration. "Albel-sama, I thought you said these would work."

"Heh, I guess she's beyond repair," he answered back.

"Kiako, you came at a really bad time," I said drawing my staff as Albel drew his sword.

"What makes you say that?" she asked not noticing the horde of six-winged Bahamuts, angel dudes and machines was standing there behind her glaring at their next victims.

"You never change do you, Kiako?" I said looking to the never ending bunch that was still heading towards us.

"Just shut up and let's kill them already!" shouted Albel slashing at one of the angel dudes.

We all took on the bahamuts, angels, and machines. After defeating the bunch on my side, I watched everyone else fight. It seemed Kiako actually learned something new without my help, though, she still trips on the most ludicrous of things. Albel as usual is cool with his katana, all the tin dudes appear to have guns.

"Heh, who knew a tennis ball could fight?" I said to myself.

"I HEARD THAT!" shouted Kiako blocking a punch from one of the six-winged bahamuts.

-8-oo-8-

After some more crazy battling and Kiako's foot got stuck in the ground somehow…

"Flare!" A ring of fire appeared underneath the bahamut and it was set a flame

"Palm of destruction!" Albel roared a greenish aura surround his claw hand and he thrust it forward knocking the bahamut into another two. Now both the Tennisball Head and I were trying to yank Kiako out of the ground

"Geez do I have to save you all the time?" I growled.

"Yippee! Me foot is free!" Kiako grinned and jumped up and did some weird hand gestures and yelling, "Kage bunshin no jutsu!" About two dozen clones popped up beside her.

"YAAAAAAAA!" Her clones cried running forward towards the machines smashing up as many them as possible.

"Hey? What's wrong with you now?" I asked casting another spell.

"I'm very low on chakra now, I used up too much of it!" she said "I don't even think I can stand!"

"Eat a pixie stick, that worked for you on Blood Gulch" Tennisball Head said reloading his pistol.

"Why the hell'd you bring a tennis ball head?" I asked angrily.  
"WHY'D YOU BRING TIN MEN AND A TENNIS BALL HEAD!" I screamed to the skies.

"That is not nice!" Tennisball Head cried.

"Kuro! Hurry and dispose of them!" Albel ordered jumping back to us "If they block the time gate then there is absolutely no way for us to get to the other world!"

"Albel is one of your reinforcments" I smirked "He's powerful and he doesn't mind killing!"

"Cool," said Kiako "But does he have to wear a skirt?"

"Don't make fun of his skirt!"

"Kuro!" Albel growled "And you two maggots! Do something useful!"

"Maggots?" she cocked her eyebrow.

"No problem Albel" I raised my staff and swung it down, "Meteor"  
Two massive flaming meteors fell from the heavens sending sparks and fire everywhere destroying all the enemies in sight. One other meteor was left flying.

"Why'd you summon two?" she asked.

"One for the monsters and one-" I drew my staff back and struck Kiako into the sky, "is for you!"

Kiako soared away like a birdie and into the meteor and I had no clue what happened to her after, like I could care.

"Why did you whack Kiako into the sky!" the Tennisball Head said worryingly waving his arms about.

"You wanna be next!" I shouted angrilly and batted him away before he could protest any further.

All was silent except for the whistle of the wind and some tumbleweed in the background.

"Ahem.." someone coughed. I slowly turned my head behind me. I head one of the tin men go "Eep."

"Listen up. I'm going to attempt to open this portal, none of you, and I mean NONE of you disturb me. If you wish to talk go someplace where I can't hear," I announced.

"Pfft, like we're gonna listen to a little—AHHHH!" said one of the guys to another as I set him on fire. "Not the face NOT THE FACE!"

"Oh for goodness sakes…" I sighed to myself summoning a Waterga spell to put out the fire. "Any objections?"

"No sir, ma'am, boss, lord, empress…" they all said at once.

"This is like having ten Kiakos to take care of," I protested. I immediately got to work on summoning a portal, if I knew how. I'll just think on it for a while until Kiako returns. Knowing her, she'll come back no matter how far I bash her. I sighed…

"Hi. My name is Kaboose. What's yours?" he said out of no where.

I felt a twinge of fury flow through my nerves. "Shut up; go away; before I KILL you." Then I threw him off the cliff on the other side of the time gate.

"Whaaahh!..." I saw them all looking ahead with sweat drops on their heads.

I tried to relax and fell into a deep trance. This increased my spiritual sensing capabilities. I searched around the planet for any other life forms to ask for help; unfortunately I only found that of the Executioners. Suddenly I started to pick up Fayt's spiritual power, not one, but two! Then I sensed three Cliffs.

"What are they still doing here?" I said out loud breaking from my trance. Albel looked at me confused.

"They?" he asked.

"Fayt and everyone else, they're here on this planet. And apparently Kiako, that cat girl, is also with them. Fayt said he would go to Moonbase for some info on his genetically modified genes. I wonder why they're back here."

"Wait, how can you tell they're here?"

"It's a shaman technique called Fumon Tonkou. It allows me to detect spiritual energy." Albel looked back at the gate.

"This gate isn't going anywhere, why don't we go see them? It's better than sitting here doing nothing."

"Fine. Yo, Multi-coloured… Dudes, stay around this area and don't wander off. Kiako would never forgive me if one of you got broken or something," I shouted to them. "And go help your little friend I shoved off the cliff if you want."

"You see, he's not really our friend," said the light blue almost white guy.

"HOW CAN YOU BE SO MEAN?" shouted the other guy from below.

"Hmph. Later," I said Oversouling my Phoenix to ride on. Albel and I jumped on and we were off.

A/N: Sorry again and forever. Finals are now over, I can finally start writing again, yay! Hope you liked this chapter! 


	9. Impatience

Note: (FF crossed with Inu, Shaman King, Naruto, Star Ocean, Tales of Destiny etc.) I do not own FF, Shaman King, Star Ocean, or Tales of Destiny. This chapter takes place after chapter 28 when the SO3 crew got sucked in a portal created by the Myrrh Tree of Kiako's story, "Through the Fireplace" I don't own her story either. Sorry for the Out of Character-ness! I'm using the American names for ToD and also mixing it with Japanese suffix. I know it's improper, but I'm too used to the American names, gomenesai.  
-8-oo-8- This thing is to separate stuff. 

Final Fantasy Madness Chapter 9 – Impatience

A lot has happened. Really. And I'm never getting home am I!

"Oh we'll go home as SOON as grahgnkd!" I shouted angrily somewhat quoting Kiako while slamming my fist to the ground. Everyone looked towards me.

"Well SOMEBODY's angry…" said Kel.

"Yeah you need to be a little more patient, Kuro-chan," said Kosarai.

"I'm going for a walk," I said standing up restraining myself from doing anything more violent.

"Will you look for my love for me?" said Vale. "She seems to have vanished from the campsite."

"No," came my answer very sternly as I started to walk away.

"Oh why am I asking you, you vile mage who always gets in the way of my love?"

I screeched to a slow stop. All was silent . . .

"ULTIMA!" I screamed thrusting my staff forward.

"AIEEEEE!" Vale responded then fainted.

"… I wonder what would have happened if she actually casted it…" whispered Kel.

-8-oo-8-

I continued to walk forth to an empty hill. Only the voice of the breezy wind could be heard.

"Hoshi ga kirei da na? (The stars are pretty aren't they?)" said none other than Hao-sama.

"Yeah," I replied seriously.

"Really, you need to relax a little," he said. I kept my mouth shut while still pondering the swirling thoughts within me. "Something is obviously on your mind. You wish to return don't you?"

"It's okay to fool around sometimes, I know that. But there's also a time when you have to be serious. Kiako's fooled around little too long, hopping merrily around dimensions. We can't save every single person that's in danger."

"You really are good at hiding your true feelings aren't you? What you speak is but half the truth."

I was a bit surprised. "How…?"

"I can sense one's every thought, Kuro. I thought I had told you already?"

"I don't remember. Well, I'm going to go home without her," I told him.

"Right now?"

"Yes. I think I may be able to mimic the Time Gate as a spell. Wish me luck. And tell Kiako and everyone else if you please. I'll be going alone."

"Ah so you want to get home and if all goes well, you'll bring everyone else back. Smart thinking."

"Of course. Though, I'm not too confident of this spell. Here I go anyways." I closed my eyes and spoke the words, "He who controls time and space, heed my request…" A surge of power rushed within me, a similar feeling I had with the Time Gate. "Bring me to the place I wish to return to!" A circle was drawn in front of me, wind gushing from the centre then pulling me in. "Hao-sama! If I need to be contacted, use Kiako's laptop! I stole D3pa1's laptop! And give her this! I don't need 'em anymore!"

"Sure! See ya later!" he yelled over the sound of the wind waving good bye. I waved back and turned to leap through the hole. This had better work.

-8-oo-8-

Soon, I was completely covered in blackness. The sound of the wind had stopped. Surprisingly, I was still conscious. Colours started to form before me as my feet felt ground beneath it. It was cold, really cold in fact. Great, winter again. Winter was in fact my favourite season, but this was ridiculous. It looked like I was in a temple of some sort. I saw someone floating in a weird prism object.

"Hey hey, can you help me get down from here?" she said. Then I heard footsteps coming from the other side behind me.

"Huh? Who are you?" asked the blonde guy with long hair.

"And what are you doing here?" said the red haired lady with a ponytail.

"I should be asking you that too. Well, um, I'm Kuro. By the way where am I?" I asked.

"You're in a temple east of Janos. Now could you get me down from here? Who's the guy you brought along?"

"Oh, yeah. This is Stahn Aileron. Stahn go over to the other pedestal and push the button when I do," said the red haired lady.

"Like this, Mary?" said Stahn.

"No! Not yet--" she said but Stahn had already gotten stuck in a prism.

"Oh my gosh, he's just as bad as Kiako," I whispered to myself shaking my head. Oh well… Walking up to the pedestals, I casted Dispell on both of the floating prisms.

"How did you do that?" asked the lady with short black hair.

"Never mind that, there are people coming this way," I said noticing the three dudes running towards us.

"Hey you have some explaining to do!" said one of them.

"Yeah! No one's supposed to be here!" said another.

"Shut up and fight if you dare!" said Mary.

"Oh this one's got a big mouth! Let's teach them a lesson!"

"Seems like once again I am involved in some mess caused by some idiots," I said.

"Who're you calling idiots!" said the black haired girl.

"Stand back." I readied my staff for a spell.

"Hahahaha What's some little kid like you gonna do?" said one of the soldiers.

Soon I realized that I could not cast a single spell. Damn, the magic system is different than Final Fantasy and Star Ocean… Fine, I had no choice.

"Oversoul, Kurosuzaku!" The spirit of the Phoenix took form as a great reddish golden bird and gave a cry as it morphed into its dark form.

"WHAAA!" screamed the three dudes as they ran out the front entrance. I then released my Oversoul.

"How pathetic," I said turning to the three people behind me. "What're you staring at for? The least you could do is tell me your names or something."

"Uh, I'm Stahn Aileron."

"Mary Argent."

"Rutee Katrea."

"Sorry for being a bit arrogant, but I am quite tired of having to put up with idiots. Now if you'll excuse me, I gotta find a way back… again."

"Hey wait, what do you mean find your way back? And how did you summon that giant bird? And…" At least he didn't call it a turkey…

"You wouldn't believe me if I said I came from another world and that I am a shaman, one who can control spirits and that I'm trying to find a way back," I said really quickly.

"Well, after what we just witnessed…" Stahn said pausing.

"I'll explain as much as possible, first, let's get outta here," I said.

-8-oo-8-

We got out of the temple place and entered a border town between the continent of Phandaria and Seinegald called Janos. We entered the nearby bar place.

"Wow. You really are from another world…" said Stahn amazed.

"Wha… If you think I'm gonna believe that, you're sadly mistaken," retorted Rutee.

"Believe what you want. In any case, could you two take out your weapons for a moment?" I asked Stahn and Rutee.

"What for?" wondered Stahn.

"Just do it."

So they both took out their swords and they started speaking.

"Atwight!"

"Dymlos? Is that really you?"

"I knew it! There are spirits within those weapons!" I exclaimed.

"I'd have to say, you're pretty sharp there, Kuro," said Dymlos. "Not everyone can hear us Swordians."

"Swordians huh?" I said to myself. "Talking swords… what next?"

"Well, since you two are here, why not join us?" said Rutee. "It'd be great right Mary?"

"Yeah!"

"You're not with them?" I asked Stahn.

"I guess I am now…" he replied.

"Same goes for me. Maybe along this journey I can find my way back."

"By the way, I've been wondering about this for a while," said Stahn.

"What is it?"

"What's that weird looking black thing behind you?"

"Huh?" I turned around to see some black shadowy… something! It had glowy eyes and a bunch of spiky metal semi-circle pieces, sort of like armour and one that looked like an eye at its waist.

"Now that you mention it…" said Mary. Rutee seemed a bit freaked out and kept silent.

"Phoe…nix…?" I managed to say.

"…I am caught… Shadow… I take the form one wishes…" he said in a strange whispery voice. He sure doesn't waste any words that's for sure. One would think he'd be creepy, but I've always liked the darkness. "Soul burns… like Phoenix… form in which I take…"

"Shadow… Nice to meet ya!" I said happily shaking his hand.

"Nice… nice to meet ya! Is that all you have to say!" screamed Rutee. Everyone grew silent and stared at her awkwardly.

"Calm down Rutee. I'm glad to know who my spirit really is. I figured that the spirit of a Phoenix in my basement was too good to be true. Hmm, no wonder every time I'm on my computer it seemed someone was always behind me…"

"H-how can you be so calm around something like that!" Rutee stammered.

"Well sooorry that my spirit turned out to be cool!" I said to her sounding sarcastic. What, I'm telling the truth! "Now if you're on some journey, I'll be happy to tag along, but in return, you gotta help me find a way back, ok?"

"F-fine… Just keep that thing away from me… Off to exchange our lens then."

"Lens? What the heck is that?" asked Stahn.

"I'm clueless too," I said.

"Come one and I'll show you. I'm surprised that you haven't heard of Lens, Stahn. Where are you from?" asked Rutee.

Stahn answered, "I'm from Liena."

"Liena? What kinda place is that?"

"It's on the continent of Fitzgald!"

"Fitzgald? The only place worth while visiting on that continent is Neuestadt. I've never heard of Liena… Oh, wait you must be a country boy!" Rutee laughed.

"Can we please go--" I said but was interrupted.

"Sh-shut up! It's not like you live any better than I do!" shouted Stahn.

"I happen to live in a wonderful place!"

"CAN WE GO NOW?" I yelled.

"We should hurry, the little kid's getting impatient," said Mary.

"I'm not a kid…" I mumbled.

Setting off for the inn, I looked up to observe the falling snowflakes and sighed. After the lady explained about Lens being the source of energy in this world and how it's high in demand and you can obtain them from monsters and that you can sell them, we left for Harmentz, a small village just to the north for Rutee to deliver some old cane to a guy named Walt. I was bored out of my mind and decided to stay outside. I saw the same dudes I saw back at the temple bickering about near the inn of this village. I went closer to investigate. Hiding behind a tree, I eavesdropped on their conversation.

"You sure they came here?"

"Yeah, some girl in weird clothes is with them, you can't miss 'em!"

"Those fools will pay for what they did to us!"

"Alright men, move out!"

I had to tell the others that we had to leave the village as soon as possible. But as I turned around, I saw a purple haired guy about as tall as me standing in my way.

"And just who the hell are you?" His sword was pointed right at my neck. "I suggest you not make a move."

A/N: I'm really sorry for being so slow. Since Kiako has submitted many chapters, I gotta catch up as soon as possible before I'm bombarded with exams and whatnot. Yes, Tales of Destiny is one of my favourite games despite its oldness and sprite graphicness...


	10. Training in the New World

Note: (FF crossed with Inu, Shaman King, Naruto, Star Ocean, Tales of Destiny etc.) I do not own FF, Shaman King, Star Ocean, or Tales of Destiny. This chapter takes place after chapter 28 when the SO3 crew got sucked in a portal created by the Myrrh Tree of Kiako's story, "Through the Fireplace" I don't own her story either. Sorry for the Out of Character-ness! I'm using the American names for ToD and also mixing it with Japanese suffix. I know it's improper, but I'm too used to the American names, gomenesai.  
-8-oo-8- This thing is to separate stuff. 

Final Fantasy Madness

Chapter 10 – Training in the New World

I glanced around some more and saw Stahn, Rutee, and Mary already tied up. Those useless fools! I was out of my mind when I thought about teaming up with them! Hastily I drew my staff and knocked the sword back as I back stepped. This guy… He also had a Swordian. With that strange design, there's no mistake…

"Grave!" he shouted. I had no clue how to react so I jumped to the side while giant stone spikes from the ground slashed my leg.

"Oversoul! Let's go, Shadow!" I called. Wings flared from my back as I tried to dodge. Each and every one of his hits had struck me. I spotted an opening and took to the skies.

"You're not getting away! Kogahazan!" The purple haired guy slashed up and hit my arm then brought me down with another strike. Blood ran down my face. I'm powerless without my magic! He was about to deal the finishing blow when my arm suddenly acted and blocked the attack causing my staff to shatter in half.

"Sh-Shadow…" I said blanking out.

-8-oo-8-

"…up"

"…et up!"

"Get up!"

I opened my eyes. Yay. Prison again… At least my wounds were treated to some extent.

"His majesty wishes to speak with you," said a soldier or guard or something… can't tell the difference…

I was taken to the audience room along with Stahn. I knelt down and bowed to the king. Luckly I still remember my manners from the King back in Star Ocean 3. He started to babble about justice and crime and some the talking Swordian things. My conscience snapped back to me when I heard something about electrocuting. Then Stahn screamed and fell to the floor. Dude! I gotta have one of those! It would be an excellent way to torture Kiako. Heheheh. One of those electrocuting tiaras was put on each of us. Our job was to investigate the Straylize Temple and something about an eye. I was still drained from the wounds so I couldn't get all of it.

"Then Leon shall accompany them," said some guy with black, shoulder length hair. Leon? Who the heck is…

"Just stay out of my way," said a purple haired guy. THAT'S LEON?

"What! That's just some kid!" yelled Rutee. He seemed to be around my age.

"Who said you could speak, you brazen hussy?" countered Leon.

"What did you say!"

"Do not worry, Leon's skill matches that of a General. I assure you he will not be of a nuisance," said the king.

"Great I feel SO much better," Rutee said sarcastically.

"At least someone 'smart' is joining us to level out the stupidity…" I mumbled to myself.

"Did you say something?" asked Leon an angry tone thinking I said something about him.

I simply replied, "No." I struggled to keep awake when the black haired dude told everyone to come with him to his mansion place; Leon also followed.

"You won't be able to fight in those torn up clothes," said the black haired man who I remembered called himself Hugo. "I will have Marian prepare some new ones for you."

"Please come this way," she said and bowed. I followed her silently to a room. As I was changing, I heard the voice of Leon and Marian in the distant hallway. I could barely hear what they were saying. Leon called Hugo a bastard; that was all I knew.  
Not wanting to come out just yet, I pulled out D3pa1's laptop that I stole and checked if anyone was online. Nobody. Then I searched up some of the people's names I've met on Google. Tales of Destiny. I did a little quick research and learned that something called Tech Points were used in place of MP. I finally exited the fancy room in my new attire and Marian was standing outside the door.  
"Um, thanks for the clothes," I said to her.  
"No problem. Your companions should be waiting at the front door. Have a nice journey"  
"Er… Thanks, Marian-san"  
"I'm sorry that we didn't have a weapon suitable for you"  
"That's alright, I could always find another one," I said smiling politely. Damn, it was my favourite staff too!

"You're late," said Leon as we walked to the front door from the hall.  
"Where's everyone else?" I asked.

"Seriously, I told them to wait at the front," he said pulling out some radar-like thing. "Seems that your little friends took off without you."

"They're not my friends... And what the heck is that you are holding?"

"I can track you all with this. I guess I should have told them before hand. Those tiaras act like a homing beacon."

"And now we gotta waste time searching for them. Great," I said.

"They're running south back to Harmentz. Those annoying fools."

"Alright. We'll take my Oversoul there. Grand Oversoul, Shadow Phoenix. Come on!"

We flew for about 15 minutes when I spotted yellow, black and red dots.

"There!"

"You're pretty sharp," said Leon.

"STAHN, RUTEE, MARY! GET YOUR DAMN BUTTS OVER HERE!" I screamed startling Leon while getting off my Oversoul. "We have a freaking mission to do and you just abandon me? Moreover, I don't even belong to this world and here I am taking responsibilities for your actions. The least you could do is show a little respect and DO this mission. Seriously, I didn't think people your age were this immature."

"Immature!" said Rutee. "You're just a kid, what do you know?"

"Age is but a mere number. It's what you do with your life that really matters," I said.

"She really is more intellectual than you," said Stahn to Rutee who then got punched by her.

"Anyways, let's hurry to the Straylize Temple; we've wasted enough time already," said Leon.

"Alrighty. Hop on," I told them. "I'll probably be able to fly directly there and back. By that time I won't have enough energy to carry you all again for a while."

"Sure. Let's go!" announced Stahn.

-8-oo-8-

We arrived at the temple. Dymlos, Stahn's Swordian, noted that it was too silent and assumed that everyone was dead. When we entered deep within the white holy shrine, we found that the walls were broken and some man was weeping at a statue.

"What happened here?" asked Leon. The man was too shaken up to reply.

"Leon-san," I called.

"What?"

"Check out this statue. It looks as if she were stoned or something. Do you think she would know anything?"

"Let's see." Leon took out a bottle of some sort and poured its contents on the motionless lady. The statue started to bleed out colour as she was transformed back into a human. The lady had big green braided pigtails with red spheres at each end. She had these overly huge circular glasses.

"Lydon-sama! Please don't!" she shouted. "Please!"

"Hey, calm down!" yelled Leon.

"The Eye of Atamoni…" started Dymlos.

"It's gone!" said Atwight.

"What happened to it?" asked Leon.

"It… was stolen by Lydon-sama…" said the lady.

"Who are you anyways?" said Mary.

"I am Philia Philice, I worked for Lydon-sama. But he…"

"We'll track down this Lydon guy!" Stahn suddenly said.

"What're you saying all of a sudden? We don't even know where this guy is! You can't just all of a sudden search for someone blindly," said Rutee.

"Please allow me to accompany you," Philia said. "I feel responsible for everything that happened."

"Don't say that, Philia. That Lydon was the one who stole the Eye of Atamoni," said Rutee.

"You worked under Lydon right? How do we know we can trust you?" said Leon.

"Oh come on Leon!" said Stahn. "It's not like she'd do anything bad to us!"

"I will try not to be a burden," said Philia.

Leon gave in. "Fine. Let's head back and report to the king."

-8-oo-8-

"Is it really necessary for us to ride this?" said Philia.

"Oh. Um. I know you're from a holy place and stuff, and dark magic is forbidden, but I really don't care for any of that stuff," I said. "No offence, Philia-san."

"I-it's okay, Kuro-san. It would have been a lot slower for us to walk, I should be thankful that we could get a ride."

"Don't worry. We're almost there. Er… Hey Leon-san, are you okay? You don't seem so well."

"I'm fine…" he mumbled in a mad tone. Wonder what's up with him…

-8-oo-8-

We reported to the king that the Eye of Atamoni went missing and that someone named Lydon was responsible. That eye thing appeared to be a weapon used in this Ae'ther War and nearly killed off the planet a few hundred years ago. Our next mission, unfortunately, was… to get it back. I knew that was coming! Until the Eye was returned, I was not off the hook.

Exhausted, we stayed at the inn in Darilsheid. Mary seemed really happy. The rooms seemed nice, but I would always prefer home. It was still early evening.

"So what are we gonna do now?" asked Stahn. "The only lead we have is this guy named Lydon. Do you know anything Philia? You used to work for him."

"We could always try searching the other Straylize Temples," she said.

"There's more than one?" said Stahn dumbfounded.

"You've seriously been living under a rock haven't you?" said Rutee shaking her head. "As expected from a country boy…"

"Quit calling me that!"

"Hey I remember hearing from some old man that there was a ship that was delivering a giant disc to Calvalese," said Mary. "That must be it."

"Fine, then we'll go there first thing tomorrow morning," ordered Leon and then turned to me. "Hey you."

"I have a name," I said.

He sighed. "Kuro. If you want, Chaltier and I could teach you some basic spells. It seems you haven't mastered fighting with that spirit of yours."

"Is it really possible for me to learn spells from this world? I've watched you Swordian users in battle and it seems only you three can use magic."

"That's right. Only Swordian masters can use magic. I wouldn't be offering if I didn't know you could. Plus you're useless here if you don't know how to defend yourself."

"Sure, fine with me."

"Alright. Let's go," said Leon walking but then paused. "You ALL come with me. I don't trust you enough to leave you alone. This is in case you decide to run off again."

"Damn…" said Rutee. Leon whipped out a remote and instantly shocked her. "AAAIIIEE!"

I turned away so that no one could see me laughing silently.

-8-oo-8-

"Hey Kuro," said Stahn playing around with a stick in the grass. Rutee was standing around bored, Mary was sitting half asleep and Philia was reading a book.

"What is it?"

"Are you sure you're well enough? You got hurt pretty bad and said that you--"

"What're you talking about? I'm fine." Sword slashes hurt… The truth was my wounds had only started to heal. And the oversoul had worn me down a bit…

"First things first. Here," said Leon tossing me a disc thing. I fumbled to catch it.

"Th-thanks… What is this?"

"I couldn't find a weapon for you to channel your magic through so just use this Lens for now. It's a bit more powerful then ordinary Lens, but not as great as the Core Crystals of the Swordians," explained Leon.

"Hmm… Hey how DID you know that I could use magic?"

A voice that was not Leon's replied, "I could easily sense that you had a similar power to that of us Swordians and--"

"Chal…" said Leon in a low voice.

"Uh, my apologies, botchama (young master)."

"We'll start with a basic spell," he said holding up his Swordian. "Grave!"

Several stone spikes pierced upwards from the ground. This was the same spell he used against me. No problem.

"Grave!" I shouted holding up the Lens. My stone spikes mimicked Leon's. "Awesome!"

"Not bad. Now try this. Press!" A huge boulder came slamming down from up above.

"Press!" I said after him but nothing happened. A tiny pebble landed on Leon's giant rock. Rutee couldn't help but laugh her head off. I felt my rage jump exponentially. "Shut up! Press! Press! Press dammit!"

Suddenly a bunch of slightly-bigger-than-pebble stones came drizzling down. Rutee laughed even harder. Leon shook his head. "There IS a spell for that, it's called Stone Blast," he told me.

"Fine! Stone Blast!" I shouted. Instantly there were storming meteors crashing into the ground.

"AHHH WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO!" screamed Rutee dodging the meteors.

"NOT MY FAULT! MY MAGIC OCCASSIONALLY INTERTWINES WITH MY EMOTIONS!"

"At least we know she can cast Meteor Swarm…" said Philia to Mary.

Luckly we were relatively far from Darilsheid when we started my magic lessons. Too bad not far enough since a bunch of citizens ran outside to see what was going on.

"You are not staying at my inn!" said the innkeeper. "Here are your belongings! Good day!"

A gust of wind blew tumbleweed across the fields. An awkward silence was looming over us. I quietly sat on the grass, my back turned away from everyone. I remember the first time trying to learn magic of the FF world, trying to learn Oversoul of the Shaman King world. I remembered all the struggles of perfecting each and every magic spell I could cast and I was going to do the same for this world.

I got to my feet. "Shall we resume the training?"

"But Kuro-san…" started Philia.

"See I told you! You're still hurt!" shouted Stahn.

"I'm fine!" I finally noticed the blood that was dripping from my arm.

"You're in no condition to continue training. Why don't you stop for tonight?" said Mary.

"Yeah, if you keep going like that, you'll wear yourself to death!" said Rutee.

"I SAID I'M--!" A blow to my back was dealt by someone. Damn it hurt!

"I think that was a little extreme--" said Stahn. I missed the last few words as I passed out.

-8-oo-8-

"Kuro?"

"Hao-sama… Must you always appear every single time I black out?"

"Heheh. Really, you should trust the words of those around you, even if you don't know them so well. Lately you've been over exerting yourself, that's not good for you."

"Trust… I was deceived, betrayed, and abandoned. Do you know how hard it is for me to trust…? Even after I work so hard to build it, it can shatter in just one second. And yet I still…"

"You still trust me, don't you?"

"..."

"You're going to tell me that I'm a 'different story' right?"

"It's because you're stronger than me. People can only get stronger through pain. Out of everyone I've met, you've suffered the most."

"Sometimes I wonder, for what reason did I come to your world?"

"Huh…? Well, isn't my world the same as yours? The only difference is a bit of a time gap.

"Yeah…"

"Anyways, what's going on back where you are?"

"Something caught on fire… and no, I had nothing to do with it."

"Heheh, I trust your word on it, Hao-sama."

-8-oo-8-

I woke up feeling a bit sore, but strangely refreshed.

"Ah, you're awake, Kuro-san," said Philia. "Are you feeling okay now?

"Yeah. Somewhat…"

"Resting is an important part of training, don't forget that," said Stahn.

"Sorry…" I muttered.

"It's alright, as long as you're fine," said Mary.

"Yeah. Thanks. We gotta catch up with that ship headed for Calvalese," I said.

"Sure, let's get to the port now shall we?" said Stahn.

A/N: Gotta love Tales of Destiny!


	11. Hatred within the Inferior

Note: (FF crossed with Inu, Shaman King, Naruto, Star Ocean, Tales of Destiny etc.) I do not own FF, Shaman King, Star Ocean, or Tales of Destiny. This chapter takes place after chapter 28 when the SO3 crew got sucked in a portal created by the Myrrh Tree of Kiako's story, "Through the Fireplace" I don't own her story either. Sorry for the Out of Character-ness!  
I'm using the American names for ToD and also mixing it with Japanese suffix. I know it's improper, but I'm too used to the American names, gomenesai.  
-8-oo-8- This thing is to separate stuff. 

Final Fantasy Madness Chapter 11 – Hatred within the Inferior

Heading towards the Darilsheid port…

"Seriously. We wasted a lot of time," said Leon.

"What! What're you talking about; you were the one who offered to teach me!" I exclaimed.

"If you had learned faster we could have got going ages ago."

"Learning new magic out of nowhere is hard you know! I'd like to see you try learning magic from the places that I've been!"

"At least I can fight better than you!"

"What was that?"

"Honestly, you two sound like Stahn and Rutee when they fight," said Mary.

"WE ARE NOTHING LIKE THOSE IDIOTS!" shouted Leon and me at the same time.

"IDIOTS!" Stahn and Rutee said simultaneously. "WELL YOU'RE…"

We all argued and argued. I could sense people staring at us four, but I still continued to yell.

"I think you made it worse Mary-san," said Philia.

"Well…" replied Mary turning away.

Someone must have said something really bad about him, and I'm sure it wasn't me, to make him use his ultimate weapon.

"You bastards!" Leon pulled out his trusty remote and shocked the three of us. Two fell to the ground.

"Haha, Thundara Bracelet, protects against lightning!" I said proudly.

"NO FAIR!" shouted Stahn and Rutee. Leon simply snatched my bracelet and gave me a jolt. I fell back…

"You bast--"

"Let's get on the ship already," said Leon boarding. I merely sighed annoyed. Seriously, he acts just like me… Now I kinda know how Kiako feels; but it's still fun to torture her hahaha.

-8-oo-8-

I was still kinda mad about the whole electrocution thing. NO ONE electrocutes ME! In any case, I pulled out my laptop and checked if Kiako was online. By the way, I was in one of the cabins in the ship. A little box appeared in the corner of my screen reading 'Kiako' and then one of her weird quotes like "Traitors hurt me, sob, I still feel pain… – Heihachi" or something. Who the hell was Heihachi? Well, I clicked on the box and greeted Kiako. She was all screaming and stuff about why I didn't take her along. Apparently this guy she found was Heihachi. Of course it was some goody two shoes kind of guy, Kiako always likes that type of person no matter who it was… I switched to speaker mode and yelled at her some more.Fun fun fun indeed.When the conversation ended, Leon came in and asked who the heck I was shouting to.

"I was talking to a friend from the world I come from. Though, she's more of an idiot than anything else," I explained to him. "I can speak to her using this device. It's called a laptop."

"A communicating device huh?" he said examining it. "The technology from your world is quite different."

"Same goes for your world and any other world I visit."

"Come to think of it, how did you end up here anyways?"

"Beats me… I was trying to get home in the first place but the spell I casted to return home failed," I said sighing.

"Hmph, how unfortunate."

"But really, I thought the spell would work. Either something from this world pulled me here or something… must have…" I instantly knew what happened. "Shadow!"

The black spirit of shadows emerged in front of me. "…Yes?"

"You're the one who disrupted the direction of my spell and brought me here!"

"…What are you saying… is false…"

"Stop lying," I growled. There was a long pause.

"…Tethe'Alla… I must return…"

"Tethe'Alla?" I opened the laptop againand searched it up.

"Now what are you doing?" asked Leon watching my screen.

"I can also use this to search up information on just about anything. Let's see… Tethe'Alla is from something called Tales of Symphonia. It is a world parallel to Sylvarant? What's that supposed to mean…?"

An unexpected tremble swayed the ship harshly. I immediately closed my laptop and ran out with Leon. Outside was a great sea serpent staring its cold eyes at its victims.

"What is a sea dragon doing here?" wondered Chaltier.

"Ph-Philia! What're you doing?" shouted Stahn.

"He… is calling…" she said walking towards the front of the ship.

"There's no way we could fight a sea dragon like this!" yelled Dymlos.

"Philia!" called Rutee grasping her arm before she fell.

"The dragon is telling me to get on it," said Philia.

"Are you going crazy or something?" Rutee said.

"Well, just standing here won't do anything. I say we go," said Mary already jumping on the sea dragon.

"Meh…" I also jumped on too soon followed by Philia, Rutee, Stahn, and Leon.

We all went through this weird underwater city called Radisrol. After meeting up with some hologram guy and finding Philia's new Swordian Clemente, we safely exited and boarded the ship. Soooo boring…

-8-oo-8-

Arriving at the port of Calvalese, everyone was complaining about the heat. Leon got annoyed and agreed to stay at the inn before doing anything. Even in a desert, the temperature immensely drops at night.

I always hated the heat, which is probably why I hated summer. Not being able to sleep, I exited the port town and peered across the endless sea of sand. This was a great time to practise with Shadow.

"Come, Shadow."

"What?…"

"Help me practise some magic, please. During that whole trip through Radisrol, I was completely useless. None of my spells would work against the monsters. I hate this, being useless…"

"……Bloody Lance…" Shadow summoned a dark circle in the ground while four swords pierced the centre and a final lance from above speared through shattering the circle. "Oversoul…"

"Huh… okay… Shadow, Oversoul, Kurosuzaku."

"Bloody Lance"  
"Bloody… Lance…" My spell had perfectly mirrored Shadow's. "Ah I get it!"

"Try no Oversoul…"

"Sure. Bloody Lance." Perfect! "Awesome. I think I get the feel for the magic like this. Alright …Grave." Four spikes of stone penetrated the sky.

"Fireball… Ice Needle… Lightning… Wind Arrow"  
"Eruption… Ice Tornado… Thunder Blade… Whirlwind"  
"…Fearful Flare… …Blizzard… …Indignation… …Cyclone"  
"Demon's Lance"  
"……………Meteor… Swar--! Ack!"

"Kuro…" Shadow caught me as I was falling down. "…Enough…"

"Yeah. Damn, the sun's already rising… It's okay. I'll be a bit sore, but I can still walk, thanks."

"Kuro!"

"Leon-san, good morning."

"Geez, you shouldn't run off like that, even if you're training."

"Could it be…" started Rutee, "that you were worried about her?"

"Piko Piko Hammer!" A giant red mallet smashed Rutee into the ground.

"I think that was just a little extreme there…" said Mary.

"I believe I've improved quite a bit don't you think?" I said.

"Yeah," said Stahn helping Rutee out of the sand. "You're quite powerful."

"I will fill you in on what you have missed," said Philia.

"Missed?"

Leon explained, "While you were out training, we snuck into the Straylize temple last night and found some info."

Philia continued, "We… met with someone I knew, Batista. He was a good man, I do not know what changed him…"

"We interrogated him into telling us the location of Lydon," finished Leon.

"More like YOU interrogated him," said Rutee.

"Lydon is in a place called Sheeden… We're heading off tomorrow."

"Um sure…" I said unenthusiastically.

"What's wrong?" said Stahn. "You seem so down."

"Nothing. I'm tired from training, that's all," I told him. Blah of coursed I lied. It was just that…

"You're lying again, Kuro. I'm beginning to understand that whenever you say you're fine, you're not."

"Okay, so I'm not really… tired from training at all. In fact, the training really paid off. As well as I can hide it, this is really putting a lot of stress on me, travelling constantly… I'm just still not used to it, even after such a long time… so I just keep my mouth shut about stuff like this since it would most likely bother people. Isn't that a good thing?" Lied again… Truth was that I hated it when people worry about my sake. I could take care of myself.

Mary told me, "Well, we were just worried." I figured so… "If something serious happens and you don't tell us…"

"How many times do I have to tell you? Quit worrying. You're only dragging me down by constantly watching over me. Although I'm only 14, I can take care of myself. I know you mean well, but… I'm not even from this world," I said. I added silently, 'so why bother…'

"Okay, but please tell us if anything serious happens," said Philia.

"Yes yes I will… Can we go back to the inn? It's burning out here…"

-8-oo-8-

After my solo training session that night, I took off the electrocuting tiara and laid it aside on a nearby counter. I did this every night because it was really annoying sleeping with it on. Thanks to my Thundara Bracelet, I could remove it with ease. Suddenly I heard some footsteps. Quickly, I pretended to sleep. The person was walking towards the counter in front of me. Oh CRAP I had forgotten to put it back on!

"Kuro." It was Leon. "Are you awake?"

"What?"

He picked up the tiara. "If you could always take this off, why didn't you just go and search for a way back to your world? You were merely being used anyways since this has nothing to do with you."

"But then that would be abandoning the responsibilities I have here."

"You aren't even supposed to exist here! And yet why!"

"Why are you so worked up for? I'm doing you a favour aren't I! By helping out of my own will," I said. "Am I… really that useless?"

"…"

"Then I'm sorry. I'm training as hard as I can to be of use. I want to help, but I don't want to be in the way."

"…I wish I was as strong as you are…" Leon silently walked out of my room.

"I'm not strong. I get hurt so easily; I'm only good at hiding."

-8-oo-8-

"Ahhhh! It's suuuuch a beautiful sunny day!" said Stahn yawning. "Eh? What are all of you guys doing here?"

"IT'S ABOUT TIME YOU WOKE UP!" screamed Rutee startling the rest of us, mostly Stahn.

"Heh, I think these two make a better couple than Kuro and Leon," chuckled Mary.

"Did. You. Say. Something?" The four of us turned around slowly with a fiery aura in the background.

"Ah.. no…" squeaked Mary.

Philia giggled at the little episode we were having. "Okay, shall we be on our way to Sheeden then?"

-8-oo-8-

It truly was a nice day; the sun was shining, the seagulls were calling, the waves…

"Ugh… not another boat…" I whined quietly. Stahn and Leon were out on the deck with me.

"Unless we can fly on that black turkey of yours, we have no--" Stahn started but…

"IT'S NOT A DAMN TURKEY! IT'S A PHOENIX! PHOENIX!" I exclaimed.

"Yes! Yes! Phoenix! It's a Phoenix!" stuttered Stahn in terror.

"Geez, will you be quiet?" Leon said. "I don't get why you're so worked up over something like this…"

"Do you know how many times my Phoenix was called a turkey ever since I got it?"

"Who really cares…"

"It's not just that either. My Vietnamese name means 'humble Phoenix' and, as much as I like eating turkey, I wouldn't wanna be called one."

"Seems like a stupid reason to me."

"What the; where'd Stahn go?"

"Probably eating or sleeping, that's all that moron does anyways."

"True," I sighed. "Soo bored… And I can't practise my magic on the ship."

"Why not?"

"If the desert had been something else, I probably would have completely demolished it."

"Hmph, that's hard to believe."

"Oh yeah?"

"I still fight better than you."

"…" Better than me… My brother… I hated that feeling since I was born. But lately, I've been used to being inferior… a 'nothing'… Why will the weak always be judged upon by the strong? Or rather be controlled. This brought back many unpleasant memories… "I'm going ahead. I'll meet you at the port. Oversoul…"

Black wings flared from my back and I took off the ship. Sheeden was in the direction of the sun, great… I put my hand up to shade my eyes when I felt the tiara on my head and then slowed to a stop. I think way too much… Turning around, I headed back to the ship.

"Hey, where were you?" asked Rutee.

"Just stretching my wings; I was bored," I replied landing.

"That's the exact answer Leon gave!"

"Really now?" I said eyeing him as he looked away with the usual annoyed look. I walked up to the captain. "How long is it until we reach Sheeden, sir?"

"With the wind like this, I'd say not for at least another ten hours," he answered.

"This thing goes way too slow! I'm gonna speed things up!"

"H-hey, wait a minute, Kuro!" shouted Stahn. "How do you intend on doing that!"

"Like this!" A dark aura surrounded my body as strange armour was being formed. My arms were now claws and the wings I used to bear were no longer fiery and translucent. The complete solidification of a spirit, Armour Style Oversoul!

"W-what is that!" I heard various people say in shock.

"Yo! Toss me some rope or something! Tie the other end to the ship!" I called to them. "If we let this Lydon bastard have that eye thing any longer, who knows what could happen!"

"It's the Eye of Atamoni for your information!" corrected Leon.

"I don't give a damn! Come on!" Two strong ropes were tossed to me and when I was given the signal, I flew off across the infinite blue ocean.

'Thanks big bro. By constantly making me inferior, I manifested a deep hatred, and gained the will to become stronger!'

A/N: That last line is true by the way. I know I know; I'm seriously behind. Don't worry, the Tales of Destiny world is almost over and once I do a few things in Symphonia, everything will be back in the real world. Then the fun REALLY starts!


	12. Crossing a Black Cat's Path

Note: (FF crossed with Inu, Shaman King, Naruto, Star Ocean, Tales of Destiny etc.) I do not own FF, Shaman King, Black Cat, Star Ocean, or Tales of Destiny. This chapter takes place after chapter 28 when the SO3 crew got sucked in a portal created by the Myrrh Tree of Kiako's story, "Through the Fireplace" I don't own her story either. Sorry for the Out of Character-ness!  
I'm using the American names for ToD and also mixing it with Japanese suffix. I know it's improper, but I'm too used to the American names, gomenesai.  
-8-oo-8- This thing is to separate stuff. 

Final Fantasy Madness Chapter 12 – Crossing a Black Cat's Path

"Whew. This new style of Oversoul is really tiring…" I sighed collapsing onto the deck. Thanks to the little acceleration I gave, we were merely minutes away from the Sheeden dock. Really angry stomping noises told me that a really mad storm was coming.

"HEY! What the HELL were you thinking!" fumed Leon.

"I was thinking of getting this mission done faster. Sitting on a smelly boat for ten hours isn't really that great…"

The captain retorted, "Hey, this 'smelly ship' has lasted over many generations of--"

"Yeah yeah that's nice, Mr. Captain…" I interrupted before he got into any excruciatingly long tales of the ocean life.

"That was one hell of a trip," said Mary.

"You can say that again…" Rutee managed to say.

"You are so reckless, Kuro-san," panted Philia.

With that over, we departed the ship and asked people around town for any information on a giant lens. Apparently it JUST left for a place called Moreau.

"AHH WE JUST MISSED IT!" shouted Stahn.

"How much worse can this get…" sighed Leon.

"KUURROOO-SAAMMAAAAAA!" called a girl's voice.

"Apparently a lot worse…" Mary said.

I turned around to see a school girl with short hair running towards me. Who the…

"Ahck! She's found me! I can't believe this!" said a man with ruffled brown hair wearing very odd clothing.

"KUURRO-SAMAAAA! Please kiss me! Mmmuu!--"

"Ahtgyah No! HIDE ME!" The man hid… behind me.

I stuttered, "Hey--wait—no—what're you--who-?"

"Mmmmmu…" She closed in on us and what was worse, her eyes were damn shut!

"Dammit," I muttered as I started up a summon. "I call forth… errr! ANYTHING!"

"Meow." Suddenly a white cat was in my face which was being held by the guy behind me.

"Blahha not the cat again!" she shouted realizing she had kissed the cat. "Kuro-sama you're so shy!"

"Okay, I don't know what the hell's going on or how you know my name…" I said to her. "Can you get this cat away from my face?"

"Ah, my bad," said the man letting go of the cat.

"Eh? I don't know who you are. My handsome Kuro-sama is the person behind you!" she smiled gleefully. "Someday we're gonna get married and--"

"Kyouko-san." This time it was a guy with a really tall hat and sunglasses and long blonde hair.

"Charden-san! Look, I found Kuro-sama!"

"Kyouko-san, we must find a way back to Creed and the others. If we linger too long, it would be harder for us to find them," said Charden.

"Okay! Kuro-sama! Let's meet again sometime!" Kyouko waved a happy goodbye as that other guy was tiptoeing away.

"YO! You're not just gonna run away after what happened, are you?" I snapped at the man.

"Kuro, just leave him," said Leon.

"Sorry, but that I can't do." I grabbed the weird guy's arm to prevent him from escaping. "This person isn't from this world. If I'm ever going to restore the corruption between dimensions, I have to send this person back."

"Eh? Send me? How?" he said.

"I have the ability to that's how. But, I can't right now. I'm a prisoner of this world until I'm finished with it. I'm sure you can wait until then. Plus, your other friends are here too; wouldn't you want to be reunited with them?"

The brown haired man was completely dumbfounded.

"Alright then it's all settled. My name is Kurosuzaku if you're wondering."

"Ah, uh I'm Train Heartnet also known as the Black Cat," he introduced himself. Black Cat… Kuro neko… That explains the Kuro-sama bit… All of the others in my little group gave their introductions following his.

"If it's alright with you five, I'm gonna help this guy find his friends and then return him to his world," I told them. "I'll meet you at Heidelburg. Ikoze, Train Kuro-sama."

"What?" yelled everyone in unison.  
"It's Train Heartnet," said Train.

"Quit deciding everything for yourself!" shouted Leon.

"That's right," agreed Stahn. "You--"

"That's enough," I sighed. "I'm just going to return those who came here from other worlds to their own worlds. The only one who can fix things right now is me. Sorry but you guys can't really help me do this. Besides, you have to get that Eye of Atamoni back"  
I turned to Leon. "We will part ways here. End of discussion. Sayonara." I grabbed Train's arm and formed a basic Oversoul and flew away.

"Oy! Kuro! KURO!" shouted the others. I turned away so Train couldn't see my face. Leon-san. I'm sorry.

-8-oo-8-

I made my way to Phandaria and landed in Janos. Train and I made our way to the inn.

"S-s-so c-cold…" shivered Train. "Hey I want to ask you something…"

"What?"

"Why did you take us to such a cold place!" I kept silent. Only the sound of the fireplace could be heard. "…Why did you leave your companions behind?"

The silence was unnerving so I answered him. He seemed like a trustworthy person… "I couldn't bear to see the events that were to come. If you're wondering why I know everything… I can't answer that one."

"How about, how can you fly?"

"It's a power called an Oversoul. I can take a spirit and turned it into a solid form, like wings. Only shamans can use this ability."

A voice was outside speaking… Two voices; some old man and a little girl.

"Eve, are you sure you heard Train in here? Because--" The door opened.

"Yo! Sven!" greeted Train.

"This answer your first question, Train?" I told him.

"Is this your girlfriend?" said Eve pointing to me.

"HUH! NO! We only met a little while ago!" stuttered Train.

"So, who are you?" asked Sven.

"Kurosuzaku. It would be a pain to explain my story right now. All I can say is that I can return you three to your world right now."

"Huh? How!" Sven asked.

"It's an ability of mine. Like I said, it would be a pain to explain…"

"But the reason we came here is because Creed is here, we can't go back just yet, Sven," said Train to Sven.

"Yeah-but—she—how-wait-what?"

"There are more of you here?" I said ignoring Sven's stumbling words.

"Yeah, Creed and his gang are here."

"And it's YOUR fault we ended up here too, you reckless idiot!" yelled Sven.

"Who're you calling an idiot!" fumed Train.

"You're both idiots, now shut up. I can locate this Creed person for you," I told them.

"You can do that?" said Eve.

"Yes, it's another ability of mine. If you don't believe me, then that's your fault."

"Huuu, it's too cold to go looking for him now," said Train, "Let's just relax here. Besides, I'm hungry. Aren't you hungry too, Kuro?"

"Huh. Now that you mentioned it, I haven't eaten anything today…" I was about to get up. "I can go look--"

"Forget that, Sven can look for food for us!" smiled Train pushing me back down on the bed.

"What! Why me!"

"Let's see, I'll have some rice balls and--"

"Idiot! Answer me!--"

Train forced Sven's head down and whispered something to him. I was too dazed out to hear.  
"Fine, I guess it can't be helped," said Sven. "I'll go buy some food"  
"I'll come too," said Eve. The door quietly closed leaving only the sound of the fireplace to be heard.  
"You could tell I was tired right?" I said.  
"After flying that distance, who wouldn't be? You should let us grownups handle these things."

"Hmph 'let the grownups handle these things.' If I could do that then I would have a long time ago…"

"What do you mean?"

"The only way I can get things done is if I do them myself. That's what I've learned from my experiences here, in other worlds, as well as at home."

I saw Train look at me strangely.

"What, you think I can't take care of myself?" I said getting up giving him my glare of doom but then heard a rustling at the door. Train cautiously tiptoed to the door gesturing to me to keep quiet and then suddenly kicked it open. BAM!

"Ahh!" The person at the door had dropped his groceries.

"Ah, it's Sven! Whoops, heheh my bad," said Train rubbing the back of his head.

"You did that on purpose!" shouted Sven punching Train.

"Hey, shut up! I thought an assassin would attack us!" Train said countering.

"What are the chances of that!"

"We're in a completely different world! Who knows what could happen!"

I turned to Eve and said, "I can understand how you feel… I put up with this every second of my life."

"Hm. Would you like something to eat?" she said.

"Sure. Let's not wait for the idiots to calm down to eat all the food…"

"Okay."

Train and Sven abruptly stopped their feud and started eating with us. During our little dinner, I quickly gave details on where I was from and how I got here. At night, I snuck outside to the temple where I first landed in this world.

"Shadow… I'll be able to return you now if you want. You're needed in your world."

"…Are you sure?"

"I'll be fine. My magic is finally at a decent level. I can fend for myself without an oversoul. As for flying, I can always find alternatives. I'll be sure to give you a visit before I leave for home. 'kay?"

"…Thank you."

I stood in front of my spirit. It was absolutely silent.

"He who controls Time and Space, heed my request… Connect the world of Destiny to the world of Symphonia and return the envoy to its dark abyss."

Wind surged through the opening I created as Shadow faded away bit by bit like a dying flame. When the winds died out, I looked down to see a floating triangle sort of thing. At first I was clueless, but when I looked closer, I found that it had some kinda of shadowy form around it.

"Though you're gone, you'll still look out for me huh? Hmph."

I exited the temple and peered into the endless night sky. A shooting star gleamed past my eyes.

A/N: After another eternity, I finally submitted a chapter! It's a miracle! Heheh, this chapter title would have been more fitting in the next chapter. Again, apologies for the eternal wait!


	13. Traitor

Note: (FF crossed with Inu, Shaman King, Naruto, Star Ocean, Tales of Destiny etc.) I do not own FF, Shaman King, Black Cat, Star Ocean, or Tales of Destiny. This chapter takes place after chapter 28 when the SO3 crew got sucked in a portal created by the Myrrh Tree of Kiako's story, "Through the Fireplace" I don't own her story either. Sorry for the Out of Character-ness! I'm using the American names for ToD and also mixing it with Japanese suffix. I know it's improper, but I'm too used to the American names, gomenesai.  
-8-oo-8- This thing is to separate stuff. 

Final Fantasy Madness Chapter 13 - Traitor

I woke up. Sven started bashing me with a bunch of stupid questions. "What in the world were you doing outside? You could have died of pneumonia! What were you thinking?"

I bashed him back with a stick. "Uresai. I just needed to do something, that's all. I have no intention of explaining this story again. Plus I had a winter jacket on! But I guess I should have gone back in when I went star gazing…"

"Uugh there's no TV in this place…" said Train out of nowhere. Eve was apparently reading a book. "I'm soooo bored…"

"In any case, I'll be heading off to Heidelburg. I promised to meet my other companions there," I told them. "Before you say another word, I can handle this myself. If you want to find this Creed guy, he's somewhere here."

I showed them a map of the world on my laptop and circled somewhere in the continent of Fitzgald which was west of Phandaria.  
"Should you find him, use this to bring him back." I opened my hand revealing a metallic bracelet. "It's a spell bracer. I use these to forge a certain spell into it so that others can use that spell, but only once. I've managed to put my Dimension magic into here, but I can't guarantee it'll really work"  
Train seemed really interested. "Whoa"  
"Here, Eve"  
"Hm?" Eve looked up from her book as I put the spell bracer on her.  
"What! Why Eve?" whined Train.

"For spells to work, you need a lot of concentration. Someone like Eve would be best because she seems a lot smarter than both of you."

"Can't argue with that…" said Sven. Train pouted and crossed his arms.

"Well, my work here is done then. Sayonara. It was nice meeting you."

I grabbed my stuff and started to head out of the Janos Inn.

"Hey hey, you sure you're gonna be okay alone?" said Train.

"I'll be fine. Sayonara." I started for the door again.

"There's lots of monsters here and we can--"

"SAYONARA." I said firmly.

"…help."

"…This matter has nothing to do with you."

Sven sighed and glanced at Train for a moment then back to me. "Exactly what can you accomplish alone?"

Train spoke up. "Besides, according to your map, Heidelburg is on the way to the port. Why not just let us come along?"

I gave in. "Do what you want…"

-8-oo-8-

It was strangely calm outside. The pure white snow was thick and deep. The sun light reflected from the snow was very blinding.

"When are we gonna reach that Heidelburg place?" whined Train in a tired sounding voice.

"You're the one who wanted us to go along with her so quit whining," said Sven.

"Hey, Kuro. Are you always depressed like this?" asked Train.

"The sky!" I shouted.

"Sky?" Train looked up to see that the clouds were closing in at an unusually fast pace.

"Something's coming." I readied myself as I heard a distant howl. I saw Train pull out a black ornate gun with the number XIII engraved on both sides. It was silent as the wind started to blow harder. Soon the peaceful snowy fields were engulfed in a raging blizzard. Another howl was heard.

"Ahh what is this!" I heard Sven shout. I attempted to open my eyes and see what was going on but the gales were too stong. The three of them were trying to find each other and me, calling out uselessly. A final howl was heard before I could see the shadow of the legendary beast in front of me, Fenrir.

Gunshots resounded in the air; I could tell that was Train. He told us to try and find him. Sven started complaining, "You idiot! Quit wasting bullets! We can't buy any here"  
"Barrier!" The area around me stopped whirling when my spell was executed. Alright, time to use my-- oh dammit, I just HAD to be nice and return Shadow to his world. No oversoul for me… "In that case, Flare Tornado!"

A whirlpool of flames surrounded the great beast. It turned around and stared straight into my eye. "Ah crap…"

Fenrir growled to the skies as the ground started shaking. Icicles shot up beneath me; I was barely able to dodge them. The pure snow was now stained with blood from the slashes upon my legs. Everything was numb and I couldn't move. There were gunshots as Train and Sven tried to draw the monster away from me. I struggled to my feet and attempted another spell. "FEARFUL FLARE!" Meteors of fire crashed upon Fenrir as it was howling in pain. There was a loud boom when it fell to the ground and then it disappeared in the blizzard. Falling to my knees, I could only see white and red.

"Kuro! Watch out!" I heard Train scream. My head was throbbing at those words until I heard a howl. A giant claw was coming down on me. I couldn't move. I couldn't speak. I couldn't see. I couldn't feel.

"Gurenken!"

"Holy Lance!"

"Dankuuken!"

"Ressurection!"

"Demon's Lance!" My senses sparked back to life upon hearing that voice. "Geez, another second late and you would've been killed."

Fenrir had fled after that last hit. The storm also retreated when Fenrir left. The fields were peaceful again. Stahn broke the silence. "Whew! That's was dangerous! Well, I'm glad you're alright, Kuro!"

"Yeah. Thanks."

"Err… Who are these people?" asked Sven. Train explained that they were my companions.

"You held up well, Kuro," said Leon.

"That sounded so sarcastic," I told him.

"What! And here I came all this way just to save your sorry life!"

"I TOLD you to meet here regardless! It's not my fault I happened to run into Fenrir!"

"That was a Fang Beast, not Fenrir! I should've LET that monster eat you, you ungrateful--!"

"If that happened, I would haunt you in my after life for all eternity!"

I could feel the stares of everyone just drilling into me.

"Are they always like this?" Train asked Stahn.

"It seems like it…" he answered.

"Please stop bickering, you two. Everyone is alright so there is no need to--"

"That's not even possible! …Er, who are you?" I said to the tall guy with silver hair and blue armour who just spoke.

"Garr Kelvin," he said.

"My apologies, I'm Kurosuzaku. Pleased to meet you. This is Train, Sven, and Eve. I've been travelling with Train to search for his friends so that I could return them to their world. It seems there's a few left--"

Stahn interrupted me. "Hey, exactly how did you know that Lydon would be here?"

"I've told you many times, I'm from a different world."

"It's not just that. You know the future of this world don't you? That device of yours has information on everything about every world out there, whether it'd be past, present, or future," explained Leon.

"That's not true. It said nothing about me coming here," I said. "Besides, the information on my laptop is just that, information. No one said it was either true or false. We have more important things to do than discuss this."

"That's right," said Philia. "We must get the Eye of Atamoni before Lydon can do anything with it."

"Hey where's Mary?" I asked Rutee.

"Oh, she went back to her hometown. She said she wanted to stay there a while."

"I see. Alright, let's go then."

'If what I just said was true, does that mean I can prevent…'

-8-oo-8-

I kept silent for most of the way. There was a sick feeling within me. I lied to them and said I was only a bit ill and that I was okay to continue through the castle of Heidelburg. Train and the others had left since their destination was the port to get to the continent of Fitzgald. I just couldn't figure out what to do after this. Now that they knew that I knew what their future was, would they get angry at me for not telling them?

We confronted Lydon at the top of the tower. I fought half-heartedly still concerned with my previous thoughts. After defeating him, the Swordians attempted to stop the overflow of energy resonating from the giant lens. Leon told them to put in a special disc in their Swordians to help stop the Eye of Atamoni from exploding.

"Did we do it?" asked Rutee.

"I think so," said Leon.

"It's… finally over," said Philia.

"Yahoo!" cheered Stahn.

"Quit being such an idiot and let's get outta here!" commanded Leon.

-8-oo-8-

Now that the whole Eye thing was over, everyone decided to return home. The tiaras were taken off of us at Darilsheid and Leon wouldn't let me keep mine. Dammit… Stahn was offered a ride on the Draconis, kind of like an airship, to his hometown in Fitzgald.

"If you see Train and them, say hi for me," I told him.

"Please take care, Stahn," said Philia.

"Have a safe journey home," said Garr.

"Farewell," said Leon. Wow, he actually said something not threatening to Stahn.

"Stahn…" Rutee paused. "…I…"

Garr cleared his throat and said, "Shall we excuse ourselves?" signalling us to leave the two alone. After going downstairs, Leon ushered me somewhere.

"What is it?" I asked him. Suddenly two guards grabbed my arms. "Hey! What's the meaning of this?"

"Sorry, but you're not going anywhere." A person with shoulder length black hair walked out of the darkness towards me.

"Hugo! Dammit, let me go!"

"Don't play games with me. I know that you know what is to come, my dear Kuro."

"Like I care! I can leave this world right now! I call upon--Agh!" Something felt like it had struck me. A strange symbol emerged where I wore the lens Leon gave me.

"Hahaha, did you really think you could escape that easily?" said Hugo.

"Then take this! Meteor Swarm!" I screamed. If there's anything I hate more than Wakka, it's being controlled by a bastard like this.

"Don't you realize that…" Hugo pulled out a sword and slashed at my left shoulder. "…you're no longer in charge?"

'Leon.' Blood was dripping down my side. 'I trusted you…' Hugo lifted my head with the tip of his sword. '…how naïve of me.' His smile was really disturbing. '…how stupid of me.' I looked over to Leon. '…but with that kind of face…' Anger and sorrow were surging through me. '…I know that you…' I felt like I was going to explode. '…are also in pain…'

Suddenly…

"(Heheheh… Hehehahaha…)"

"Hmm?" Hugo looked at me strangely, his sword still pointed at my neck.

'(I've been waiting. The time is now. So choose.)'

'Choose…'

'(Will you die, or will you live?)'

'…Neither.'

'(Huh?)'

"…I will win!" I grabbed Hugo's blade; my eyes were filled with a murderous intent.

"(I stand on the side of Hades)"  
"I stand at the edge to Hades…"

Hugo pulled his sword back causing my hand to drip in red.

"(A wall still binds me)"  
"You who is bound by the door,"

Dark energy resonated from my body. The guards let go of me and backed away in fear. Hugo started to panic and slash blindly.

"(So release me from the depths of hell)"  
"I step forth, opening to the devil of hell!"

Despite my severe wounds, I was able to stand on my feet. Hm, go figure.

"(Liberate our bloodlust)"  
"Liberate our bloodlust!"

Great bursts of dark energy shot out of my body; my blood following its paths. My eyes narrowed.

"Diablos!"

A/N: Ahahaha you don't get to know what happens! Kuro can't tell her story if she's passed out, so give me a break. You can probably imagine all the cool shiny effects yourself right? Okay, so I apologize for the big delay and I hope you enjoyed this chapter.


	14. Fighting of the Spirit

Note: (FF crossed with Inu, Shaman King, Naruto, Star Ocean, Tales of Destiny etc.) I do not own FF, Shaman King, Black Cat, Star Ocean, or Tales of Destiny. This chapter takes place just before chapter 33 of Kiako's story, "Through the Fireplace" I don't own her story either. Sorry for the Out of Character-ness!  
I'm using the American names for ToD and also mixing it with Japanese suffix. I know it's improper, but I'm too used to the American names, gomenesai.  
-8-oo-8- This thing is to separate stuff.  
Chapter title was taken from Tales of Phantasia / Symphonia's infamous song.

Final Fantasy Madness Chapter 14 – Fighting of the Spirit

The darkness started to dissipate as I opened my eyes. It seemed like I was outside in a light forest. Although it felt like those slash cuts had healed, there were still bandages on me.

"Hey."

That sounded like… I turned to my right and saw a person sitting on the ground near me wearing dark clothing and a bone mask with two sky bluish feathers. Slowly, I sat up on the futon.

"You shouldn't get up yet. Your wounds haven't fully healed."

"It's alright, thanks. What's your name?" I asked.

"Judas," he replied. "How about you?"

I paused for a moment and answered. "It's Kuro." Judas flinched upon hearing that name.

"Heeey! Judas! We got some more herbs!" A blonde kid was running towards the door from outside. Strangely, he looked like Stahn with short hair.

I sighed and said in a low voice, "Seems like you've made friends with idiots again… Ah--er--um! Who are they, uh, Judas?"

Judas didn't answer.

"Shut up Kyle! You'll wake the girl up!" said another person. He had short grey hair; he was tall and muscular; he carried an axe for a weapon; he was just another idiot.

"Loni, you're being loud too!" shouted Kyle.

"Well you're being even louder than I am!" Loni shouted even more thunderously.

"Will you two please stop," said a girl with black hair wearing a pinkish dress carrying a lens around her neck. The two morons continued to bicker and I started to get pissed off.

"Shut up already!" I screamed to them. All was silent except some chirping birds.

"Ahem," Loni coughed and was about to say something but was interrupted.

"Hello, I'm Kyle Dunamis. You may have heard me from my father, one of the four heros, Stahn Aileron; and my mother who is also a hero, Rutee Katrea." That explains a lot… Though, I wonder why Kyle's last name is different.

"I'm Reala."

"And I'm--"

"--Loni the loudmouth. Yes, nice to meet you all. My name is Kuro. Judas-san already introduced himself to me." I said very quickly.

"Hey!" I think I pissed him off. "I'm Loni Dunamis, Kyle's big bro. We have some questions to ask you."

"Loni, we just met her; you should be more polite," said Kyle.

"Shut up. I just have a bad feeling about her, that's all," whispered Loni.

"Because she made fun of you?" Kyle teased.

"It's okay. Ask away," I said without a care.

"First, what happened before you got all injured?" he asked.

"I was fighting, what else?"

"Fighting? Why?"

"To save my life?"

"From what?"

"Okay dammit, you're being annoying."

"Fine, next question. How old are you?" Loni was sort of pacing now.

"Loni, stop this already; you're being rude," Kyle said.

I replied extremely fast, "Fourteen; turning fifteen in a couple of months. Before you say anything, I do have the ability to take care of myself. And I thank you for your hospitality, may I leave now?"

"Where're you from?"

"I am constantly travelling. Although, I do have a home, it's very far away. My family disappeared about a year or two ago, okay? No more questions. Thanks for taking care of me. I'd pay you if I had any money but I gave it all to Le--I mean--away. Yeah."

"No that's alright," said Reala. "But you should really thank that person there." I looked behind me and saw a man in purple clothing and red hair. "His name is Kratos Aurion."

"Er… Thank you, Kratos."

"It was nothing," he said.

I stood up suddenly and removed my bandages. Loni shouted to me, "H-hey what're you doing? You're not fully healed yet!"

Ignoring him, I turned to everyone else. "Please excuse me, I'm in a hurry. And thanks again for taking care of me. I'll make it up to you should we ever meet again." Taking off my Lens necklace, I walked up to Judas. "Here."

"What's this for?" he asked.

"I trust you to return it. I have a feeling that I'll meet up with two idiots again."

"Idiots?" Kyle and Loni shouted.

I laughed for the first time in a while. Judas shook his head and said, "By your reactions I'm guessing we know who they are."

I heard Loni whisper, "Man, those two seem exactly alike. Don't you think, Kyle?"

Kyle chuckled. "Considering Kuro-san is a girl, I'd think you would start flirting with her or something."

"No way, she's way too young. Now if she was just 10 years older then--"

I casted Stone Blast at Loni. "Exactly what are you discussing over there?" I yelled in a stern voice. "Geez, people these days… In any case, I'm counting on you to return it, alright?"

Judas seemed to know the real reason why he's being told to keep the Lens for me. "Sure, I understand."

"See ya everyone." I walked off into the endless fields.

-8-oo-8-

I never realized how quiet it could be without anyone around. It was actually really peaceful. Just like my path, these fields, this open sky, it all seemed infinite. I wasn't sure I could send myself back home. If the worlds I connect were closely related, opening a portal would be a lot easier. But where I was now…

"Meow." A little white cat was beside me just smiling… 'That cat looks awfully familiar…'

"Yo, Kuro! What're you doing here of all places?"

"That should be my question. So, where's your companions?"

"Sven and little princess are trying to fix our car over there." I looked over to them who waved back at me. The old car's engine started sputtering as it stopped.

"So much for peace and quiet…" I mumbled. "In any case, how the heck did you end up here? I was sure that it would've work…"

Sven shouted angrily across the field, "It's all Train's fault!"

"Hey I only broke the car! Ending up here would be little princess's fault! She was in charge of the travelling thing!" retorted Train as he walked towards the car.

"What! How dare you blame Eve for this!" They continued arguing as Eve walked to me and returned the bracelet.

"I did exactly as you told me, but an unknown force changed our destination," Eve told me.

"I see. It's nice to see you again, Eve."

"You too, Kuro."

I casted a thunder spell to stop the bickering morons telling them that it would be okay to travel together for now. About an hour passed by before Sven got the car working. I had complained to him that such a thing wasn't necessary because I get car sick easily plus cars create pollution. He told me he would buy me ice cream if I rode the old '70s looking car and I replied with a stern "Fine."

Sitting beside the sleeping Train with a piercing headache, I also had soon fallen asleep. When I woke up the next morning, we had arrived at a familiar city. It was Darilsheid. Of all places…

I insisted that I wanted to stay back. "Let's just say that I don't have fond memories of this place."

-8-oo-8-

'…Kuro.'

'It's been a while since I heard your voice, Hao-sama.'

'Fight me.'

'Huh?' He summoned Spirit of Fire and formed it into a sword then pointing it at me. 'Hao-sama, what's the meaning of this--' He slashed at my face before I could say another word. I stepped back.

'I said fight me, Kuro.'

'Why?'

'Only you can answer that.' He charged at me again; I barely dodged his attack. 'What's wrong? Why won't you fight me?' I was utterly dumbfounded at his actions. I knew for a fact that it was Hao-sama but… 'Come on!'

I couldn't completely avoid the slash and as a result, it had burned my arm.

'Quit running away! Exactly what is it that you are afraid of, oh fearless Kuro-sama?' The blazing sword pierced through me and I fell to my knees; I couldn't breathe at all. Why can't I fight back? Can I not fight anymore? 'If you keep having those thoughts, I will kill you.' He pulled his weapon out of me and pointed at me again.

'If it's a fight you want…' I was filled with a burning rage and confusion.

'That's more like it.' He smirked and brought his sword down for another attack. I used my fist to hit it out of the way and kicked him back.

'Blizzaga!'

'Heh, magic huh?' Hao-sama converted his sword back into the regular form of Spirit of Fire. He jumped on its shoulder to avoid my attack but… 'What the…' I had created a dome of ice surrounding him with another piece of ice on the ground leading towards me

'You're gonna regret challenging me, Hao-sama!' I slammed my hand to the frozen ground, if it even was ground, and waited. Just waited.

With each attempt of breaking out of the dome, Hao got shocked by the electricity I was putting into it. Spirit of Fire then shot balls of flame to melt the thick ice. I charged up a Thundaga and when he finally broke free, I released everything I had on him. I had won, but I felt bittersweet. I stood on my feet and started to walk away.

'Who said you won?'

Suddenly a figure leapt towards me. I reacted by bringing my hands up to stop Hao-sama's sword. My hands seared in pain.

'I sense no killing intent from you.'

'…I don't… want to kill you…'

'Then I will have to kill you.' I got shoved back and into a wall. 'Look at you.' He walked up to me and kneeled down. 'You've become weak.' I merely stared at him, not angry, nor sad, but frustrated. 'Your mind has been in quite of turmoil lately. It was because of those recent events right? You wanted to erase your pains by helping others erase theirs but it had only made it worse.'

'After all, I'm only a human… I don't want to be betrayed…'

Hao-sama stood up. 'No… You're a shaman.'

'Shaman… I returned my main spirit to his proper world. I can't fight as a shaman anymore! I can't--' Hao punched me in the face.

'Have you forgotten what a shaman is already? I am disappointed.' He left me in the darkness without another word.

'To be a shaman… a black mage… To be Kuro… I guess as a Black Phoenix, I have to live alone after all. Only one of me exists in this world… There's nothing I can do--' Then it came to me. I finally understood what Hao-sama wanted to tell me. My situation was a similar thing he went through except, of course, he had suffered eternally more. Even through that, he still kept living for the sake of his dream. Alone. I think that… all he needed was someone to trust. He didn't want me to be forever in despair.

'Correct!' Well that came out of nowhere!

'HEY! Where'd you come from!'

'It seriously took you long enough to figure it out.'

'Oh shut up. So, you wanna continue our fight?'

'What? The whole point of this was for you to get your spirit back up. There's no need to anymore.'

'Exactly what is it that you are afraid of, oh fearless Hao-sama!'

'Heh, you're really serious. Very well. Don't hold back.'

'Wasn't planning on it, 'cause I gots me a secret weapon.'

'Really now?'

'He's called DIABLOS!'

Suddenly the ground cracked open and fiery lights shone through. 'Never thought you'd actually call me up so soon. I feel loved. Heheheh.'

'Hyoui Gatai!' The devil fused with me and granted me an abundant amount of magic power. I took the initiative and dashed amazingly fast towards Hao-sama. I punched the ground as he dodged; a dark flame rose up each time.

'Spirit of Fire!' He shot a pillar of fire directly at me. With my arm fused with the magic of Blizzaga, I simply slashed it out of my way and sent a torrent of water against him knowing that fire is weak against water. Direct hit! When the water receded, Spirit of Fire was no where to be found but I wasn't about to let down my guard. I casted a Thundaga to flush him out but it was too late. I had already been caught in his trap after I noticed the water on the ground.

'Dammit!' Spirit of Fire, or rather now the Spirit of Water had me in its claws.

'Heheh, you've improved a lot since the last time I saw you. I haven't gotten this serious since I fought the X-LAWS.'

'You lose against Yoh, you know.'

'Hmm? How?'

'Sadly you get sliced in half and then explode and then everyone gets engulfed in this weird light and then you're never seen again forever.'

'…That sounds very pleasant…'

'Well it's time for me to finish what I started back in the Tales world.'

'Sure. See you soon.'

-8-oo-8-

I woke up in the shade of emerald green trees beside the stone wall of Darilsheid. I felt so refreshed since I didn't feel pain anymore. It had been so long since I had a nice sleep. I put my arms behind my head and continued to stare at the leaves gently rustling in the quiet breeze.

Almost falling asleep again, I heard footsteps in the grass.

"Ah, so there you are," said Sven holding two ice creams.

"Ice cream!" I sprinted to him and snatched it thus startling him. "Thanks!"

"You feeling better?" asked Train. "You didn't seem so well after the car ride."

"I'm fine now. All I needed was some nice rest."

Sven pointed out, "You were sleeping the whole car ride though."

"I told you, I hate cars," I mumbled. "I don't actually fall asleep, you know."

"So, what should we do now?" asked Sven. "We no longer have any leads to where Creed is."

"You don't have to worry about that," I told them. "Now that I'm completely refreshed, I think I can send you all back."

"What? Are you serious?"

"Yeah. But I won't know until I try. Come, Diablos."

Out from the earth came my favourite devil. Diablos yawned, "What is it this time?" Everyone, except Eve, looked at the rising devil in an awkward fear.

"Lend me your power," I demanded.

"Hey hey, say it a little nicer would ya?" complained Diablos.

"Fine," I grumbled. Taking a deep breath, I spoke, "Oh great lord of Hell, grant me thy power so that I can get the heck out of here as soon as possible!"

"…Good enough. So, what do you want, Kuro?"

"I'd like you to help me open a portal," I said simply then chomped on my ice cream cone.

"You're asking for the near impossible."

"What?"

"Haven't you noticed yet? Tearing open so many portals in a short time is causing the dimensional rift, the area where you travel through to get to another world, to distort. Even if you close them properly, it still damages them making it unusable for some time."

"Damn it…" I said turning around to face my shadow. Shadow! "That's it!"

"What is?" Diablos asked.

"Shadow left a sort of shard thing behind when he left. I've been wondering what this was for a while now." I handed it to Diablos. It felt really weird, my small hands compared with his giant claws. After examining it for a minute, he gave it back to me.

"That 'shard' of yours will probably be enough to open a portal. Even with my powers, I can't ensure where you'll be going."

I whined, "Augh that means it's another blind trip to some random place…"

"Well, not knowing where you're going can be pretty fun!" exclaimed Train.

"Well, running around aimlessly wasting your life away can be pretty fun!" I mocked. "Should we go now then?"

"Were you listening to a single word I said!" shouted Diablos.

"Yeah, try telling it to that," I said pointing behind him. Huzzah, a portal.

"When did you--"

"I didn't. Someone else is messing around with portals. We have no clue where this could lead so we have to proceed with the utmost cautio--"

"Hell, screw that!" Train jumped in dragging Sven and Eve with him.

"Train you bastard!" Sven screamed, his voice disappearing into the unknown abyss.

"Come on, portal's closing," Diablos said shoving me in.

-8-oo-8-

"W-what the heck?" I was apparently in a dark room with pods scattered about randomly, some filled with people in them. Diablos soon appeared beside me. Train, Sven and Eve had jumped in first so they may have aarrived somewhere else.

"Whoa…" he said in sort of a sarcastic awe.

"Diablos, help me free these people."

"Sure."

After opening one of them, it revealed a dormant young man wearing a bone mask. "Hey, wake up… WAKE UP!" I shouted.

"He will not wake up. None of them will," said a creepy lady's voice.

"Who are you?" I asked the strange woman.

"I am God. I see you have a demon haunting you. Let me liberate you, and you will become happy…" she said monotonously coming closer.

"Stay away from me!"

"Why do you resist, child? If you believe in God, great things will come to you."

"Tch. And I should trust you why?"

"Because I am God. Everybody should trust God."

"Don't you tell me what to do, lady!"

"Kuro calm down," Diablos whispered.

"Just hurry and take care of the others," I whispered back. "Don't worry about me."

"…Understood."

"Why are you in alliance with that devil?" said the woman.

"I'm not. He's in alliance with me." I seemed to slightly piss off Diablos.

"That devil is evil and has corrupted and warped your mind into a state of despair. I will relieve you of this evil and correct your mind."

"What if I don't want to?"

"What are you saying?"

"What if I like me this way?"

"This is utter nonsense you speak. I can clear your mind if you let me…" The lady turned to Diablos who had finished removing everyone from the pods. "These people are living happily because I had purified them."

"They look dead to me…" I muttered.

"You will also be in a peaceful state," she said grasping my shoulders. "But first…"

"AAUUGHH What the hell!" Diablos seemed to be suffering from some electric-ish attack.

"Diablos! Let go you stupid woman!" I slapped her hands away and ran to Diablos. When I touched him, I got shocked.

"It is no use, child," said the lady.

"We'll see about that." I grabbed Diablos' arm; pain surged through my left hand.

"Idiot! What're you doing!" growled Diablos. I reached over and grabbed the masked guy's arm. He flinched and suddenly opened his eyes.

Letting go of the guy's arm, I said to Diablos, "I'd rather die before I accept any help from a god!" Raising my arm, I attempted to cast a spell.

"Stop it; let go!"

"Because God…"

"Kuro!"

"…can never know anything different …"

"KURO!"

"…than what has been engraved in their stupid justice! ULTIMA!"

Not all angels are seen as good. Not all devils are seen as evil. Not everyone has an open mind to really see anything.

-8-oo-8-

"Thank you, Kuro. We owe you one," said Kyle.

"Nah, now we're even," I told him.

"I am grateful that no one is injured," said Kratos.

"Yeah, you really saved us," said a newcomer, Nanaly.

"Yes, thank you very much," said Reala.

"…" Kyle kicked Loni. "I'm not sayin' nothin'!" Nanaly did some back-bone-crusher manoeuvre and he finally thanked me. "AHH Ah… Th-thanks…"

"Kuro."

"Hey, Leon. Glad you're safe," I said.

"Leon?" everyone said in unison, even Diablos, which looked rather funny with their dumbfounded faces. Diablos didn't seem to fit in the picture…

"Ah, er! Judas! I meant Judas, I'm glad you're safe Ju--"

"Don't worry about it." Judas removed his bone mask. "That's right. I am Leon Magnus, traitor of the four heros." He looked down in shame as if he were to be punished. "I betrayed my friends and nearly killed them…"

"But, you're still Judas, our companion, right everyone?" said Kyle.

"That's right. Whatever happened in the past is over now," Reala said.

"Yeah, that happened like 18 years ago," said Loni sounding all smart and cocky.

"I forgave you long ago. You had your reasons for you actions, that's all. If Stahn and them were here, they'd probably say the same thing," I told him. "Even though you did betray us, the fact that you are trying to atone is good enough. That's what I believe."

Judas smiled for the first time I've seen. "Kuro…"

"Your arm's disappearing," said Diablos randomly out of nowhere.

I gave him a weird look. "What?"

The other newcomer Harold Belserius, she's a woman by the way, explained that time was trying to repair itself. Apparently Kyle and his group had been jumping between times within this world and now that the "God" was defeated, things were reverting back to normal. That meant…

"Yes," she said. "We will all return to our original times. And also, we will lose the memories of our little journey"

"No way, we've been through so much," said Kyle on the verge of tears. Everyone was silent for a few moments

"So where are you headed off to?" Loni asked me.

"Home probably…"

"What's with the long face? I thought this is what you've been going through this whole adventure for," said Diablos.

"Leon, what'll happen to you?"

"I'll probably disappear for good," Judas said starting to fade too. Kratos seemed to be as well. He didn't say anything though. "Originally, I was supposed to be dead anyways."

"You don't sound too upset about that…"

"I'm just glad I met everyone here. It's been fun."

"Yeah," I muttered. "Thanks everyone…"

A/N: No, I haven't died… yet… Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Kuro finally returns to the real world! 


	15. Home FINALLY

Note: (FF crossed with Inu, Shaman King, Naruto, Star Ocean, Tales of Destiny etc.) I do not own FF, Shaman King, Black Cat, Star Ocean, or Tales of Destiny. This chapter takes place during chapter 33 of Kiako's story, "Through the Fireplace" I don't own her story either. Sorry for the Out of Character-ness!  
-8-oo-8- This thing is to separate stuff.

Final Fantasy Madness Chapter 15 – Home FINALLY

I awoke in a room. At first I almost didn't recognize it since I had been away from it for such a long time. Everything felt like a really long dream. As I was looking around trying to get accustomed to this room, some weird disc object hit me on the head and a figure walked away. My Lens! I sat up quickly and bashed my head against the headboard. AH! Everything was blurry! Every—everything—every… Oh yeah. I forgot to put on my glasses. Looking at the time, it was already almost noon. But, exactly what the heck day was it? My calendar was flipped to January 2005, but it was sunny, and leaves were still on the trees except they weren't green.

"I see. It's somewhere near August; not very good. Geez, I don't wanna get up…"

"Kuro, your breakfast is getting cold." That voice had punched the sleepiness right out of me.

All I could manage was a simple, "…Eh?"

-8-oo-8-

Was I still dreaming? Or was what Harold-san said back in that place completely wrong about how everything was supposed to revert to normal? I slowly took a spoonful of rice observing the three people in front of me in my kitchen.

"Hey this is pretty good, just like my mom's cooking," I said.

"I'm glad you like it," said Kratos-san.

"It's not that great," said Leon-san.

"You already ate 2 bowls," said Hao-sama.

"Be quiet…"

"Hey, after we eat, can we go over to Kiako's place?" I asked.

"What for?" wondered Hao-sama.

"And who the hell's this 'Kiako'?" said Leon-san.

"Kiako's a friend of mine," I started explaining. "To put it more simply, she's an idiot."

"So why do we have to go visit her?" asked Kratos-san.

I took a deep breath and sighed. "She, along with another friend D3pa1, has traveled through various dimensions with me. If you three are here in my world, then this means that Kiako's gang is also here. And if Wakka the Death Bringer Version Negative Infinity (Kiako is the original Death Bringer) isn't here in this house, then he's at Kiako's for sure," I explained resting my head on my arm. "Or possibly at D3pa1's. I left a duplicate of us, that is, Kiako, D3pa1, and me, so that if time does pass on here, things will seem normal. I'm gonna have to explain things to Kiako before she gets a heart attack and starts screaming for my help."

"That still doesn't explain much," Leon-san mumbled taking another bite.

"Leon-san. If you know idiots as well as I do, you can imagine what may be happening right now. And Wakka… he could probably destroy this world if he were to be near a stove… or anything that looks like one."

"I'm not Leon, I'm Judas," he corrected.

"Sorry, but you can't use that name in this world. Religious reasons… I'll explain later." I stood up and collected everyone's bowls and shoved them in the dishwasher. I was still kinda groggy and staggered a bit.

"Kuro, maybe you should rest a little more before you head off," said Hao-sama practically knowing exactly what my physical status was. I was about to say that I was okay, but then agreed to rest.

"Kiako's house is within walking distance so we can go there tonight. In the mean time, you guys can all explore my house and get used to it."

"We've already done that," said Hao-sama.

"You guys got here before me?"

"That is correct," said Kratos-san. "You have a very nice place."

"Thanks."

"So explain to me why I can't use my name?" demanded Leon-san.

"In my world, 'Judas' was a 'bad person'. That's about all you need to know. Leon seems more of a normal name than Judas so it would be better to use. Unless you want to be called 'Emilio', Leon's your only choice of name here, alright?"

"Fine," pouted Leon-san.

(A/N: From here on I'm dropping the –san and –sama unless it's in dialogue.)

Leon and Kratos went to watch TV while Hao and I went outside and sat in the grass in my back yard.

"Hao-sama, how am I supposed to train without a spirit?" I asked. "And didn't you tell me to rest?"

"We're not training right now," he laughed.

"In any case, how do we go about doing this?"

Hao smiled. "By realizing your death."

"Huh?"

"Only by experiencing a pseudo-death will you have access to all of your powers. As well as…"

"As well as?" I gestured to him to say more.

"Well you'll see soon enough, heheh. Are you scared?"

I paused for a moment. "Not… really… It just feels weird, suddenly being told that you're gonna die?"

"Haha. That's what I like about you. You're different than other humans."

"How so?" I wondered.

"Even after watching over this world for 1000 years, humans have not changed their ways. All of their thoughts and feelings are the same wherever I go. But yours are always different from them."

"That's probably because of how I grew up. I was always isolated from the world around me, knowing only the things that actually made sense in this world. So, I was never influenced by anything but videogames."

Hao laughed at my last sentence. "I see. Hey, should we head over to your friend's?" Hao said.

"Geez, let's just go already!" Diablos shouted. I turned and saw the others there on the belcony.

"Hey! You! What did you? When did you?" I said stumbling on my words. "You bastard, what're you doing out here? I never summoned you!"

"Correction, you never UNsummoned me!"

"Whatever, just stay here and take care of the house. If anyone breaks in, just kill 'em or something."

Leon gave an annoyed sigh. "Quit wasting time, let's go already!"

"I'll fly us there," said Hao bringing out Spirit of Fire.

"Such an amazing beast," said Kratos. Hao and Leon jumped on and made their way to SoF's shoulders.

"What're you waiting for, Kuro?" said Leon.

"I'm HUMAN; I can't freakin' jump that high!" I retorted. Kratos grabbed my arm as he sprouted wings. They weren't like those birdy feather wings, more like some sort of translucent energy wings. Soon I found myself soaring through the air and landing on SoF. "Thanks, Kratos-san."

-8-oo-8-

After wasting time at Kiako's house, we finally returned home with Albel at MIDNIGHT! Man, I was so tired.

"Nice place you got here," said Albel.

"Good MORNING SIR KURO!" shouted Wakka jumping in out of nowhere and into my fist. Fortunately for me, it knocked him unconscious. Technically speaking, it WAS morning, but I didn't think Wakka knew regardless.

"Here, you guys can borrow my brother and dad's clothes for now. We'll go buy better clothes on Saturday or something. School is starting soon, too, damn. Need school supplies. And also--"

"Where do we sleep?" Albel asked interrupting me.

"Um… Wherever you want I guess." I pointed to the hallway. "My room is on the left, the middle room's empty and the far right is my parents' room. My brother's room is downstairs."

"Fine," he said walking downstairs.

"Let's get ready for bed; we're going to Kiako's again tomorrow at 1:30pm."

"Ugh, Why?" complained Leon.

"When I'm tired, I tend to blurt out random words okay? Now go to sleep." Leon was too tired to say anything else and headed to the middle 'guest room' to sleep.

Diablos popped up beside me and said happily, "I sent a burglar to hell!"

"Whoa, okay when I said 'kill them or something' I didn't really mean it."

"Calm down. I knew that if I did something like that you'd get in trouble. Besides, that guy got scared and ran off anyways. Then some blue dudes put him in a flashy object."

"That would be the police and a police car…" I muttered. Diablos seemed smarter than I thought despite his weirdness.

-8-oo-8-

Finally, after brushing my teeth, I was able to collapse onto my good ol' bed. After camping out for so long, being able to return to a regular bed was really pleasant. I heard the doorknob turn as a dark figure walked into my room.

"About the training, when will we start it?" I asked.

"Hm? You're quite anxious about this."

"Of course. After all, I'm just a human. I'd do anything to become stronger." My thoughts wandered off throughout the night.

A/N: And that is the end of her journey around various game worlds… for now. Next up, Kuro starts her first day at school, the final year in Junior High. "What could possibly go wrong?" Ha ha ha… EVERYTHING! 


	16. Blitz Dodge!

Note: (FF crossed with Inu, Shaman King, Naruto, Star Ocean, Tales of Destiny etc.) I do not own FF, Shaman King, Black Cat, Star Ocean, or Tales of Destiny. The first half of this chapter takes place after chapter 34 and before chapter 35 of Kiako's story, "Through the Fireplace" and the last half "about a month or two later" takes place during chapter 37. I don't own her story either. Sorry for the Out of Character-ness!  
-8-oo-8- This thing is to separate stuff.

Final Fantasy Madness Chapter 16 – Blitz Dodge!

Click. "It's Tuesday September the 6th. Today's forecast will be sunny with some cloudy periods. The temperature is currently 4 degrees Celsius but it will warm up later this afternoon to a high of--" I angrily punched the snooze button on my radio alarm clock. 'School already? Give me a break!' I glanced at the time and it was 7:45am.

Blearily getting dressed, I nearly went unconscious again when I reached the door. 'Oh damn. Forgot my glasses again…'

By the time I reached the kitchen, I was finally half awake. Well, enough so that I could actually do something. I had some maple flavoured Mini-Wheat cereal and milk for breakfast and headed off to school. In the front yard was Hao with SoF by his side.

"Need a lift?" he asked; the rest of the gang already boarded. Wakka went missing for a while now… Not exactly good. He probably went back to Kiako's.

"Sure." Spirit of Fire let down his arm for me to get on and we took off.

"So, you're all going to attend school with me?" I asked everyone.

"What else is there to do?" grumbled Albel.

"I suppose. But you all better behave. Even if I'm a human now, doesn't mean that I can't hurt you. Speaking of which, where's Diablos?"

"Ah, he figured he wouldn't fit in with the humans of course. So he's staying back to guard the house again," Hao explained to me.

"I see. Since I don't have my powers besides that of a shaman's I can't really 'unsummon' him as he puts it. Guess he'll have to stay hidden for a while."

"YOO KURO-CHAN!" came a loud yell. "CAN WE GET A LIFT?" I threw a shikigami at Cliff. "OW!"

"Hao-sama. Pick them up. This guy won't shut up if we don't."

"Sure." After that little interruption, we sailed on quietly for the rest of the way.

"So that's your school?" asked Leon.

"Yes."

"It's quite small."

"What did you expect? A castle?"

We landed and found our way through the traffic jam of students inside the school to the paper that showed the list of students in each homeroom.

'Good, we're all in the same class. It's amazing that Kratos can come to school too. Then again, Kiako's band of morons came too.'

"901, eh?" said Leon. "Is there anything different between a 901 and a 902? Is it like a ranking system?"

"901 and 905 are Academic Challenge classes, basically for students who have higher grades than others. The reason for this is so that we smart people can get smarter without the idiots to pull us down," I explained matter-of-factly. "The students in those classes are generally nicer than the others from what I've seen in the past years."

"Why is that Kiako girl not here as well?" asked Kratos.

"Hmmmm like I said, the AC classes are for students who have higher grades."

"Hmph. So, what ARE your grades, Kuro?" scoffed Albel.

"Straight A's," I simply replied. "I remember Kiako's was something like a random B, A, and D…"

"B-A-D," Kratos said raising an eyebrow.

"Yup. The sheet says for all in 901 to meet in room 21. Let's go."

Wait. Room 21 means that I have HIM as my homeroom teacher again!

"Alright everybody, hushay voo!" said the teacher. He was a big cocky sports guy who couldn't speak French, and he an ego bigger than Cliff from SO3. He's also a traitor of our city for rooting for any opposing team in all sports, mostly hockey though. 'Hushez vous' was what he was trying to say; his version of shut up. Hushez was a mix of hush and the French conjugation for 'vous'. I know; I've taken French for 2 years.

"Due to some last minute changes to the schedules I won't be your homeroom teacher." Everyone in the class laughed and cheered. "Oho boo hoo yes yes it's a very sad thing. Very sad indeed. Your schedules should be coming in aaany minute now."

The class commenced their usual chatter while I kept silent as usual waiting for my schedule.

"I really hate that guy," protested Albel. "He reminds me of another overly muscular person I hate."

"Yeah," I agreed, "everyone hates him in that sense. But he's a pretty good teacher. Better Phys.ed teacher than Science." If he appeared on my timetable, it would be the third year I've had him as a teacher.

"That guy teaches Science?" Leon said surprised. "Don't make me laugh."

"Alright, hushez vous everyone and I'll pass out the timetables. Once I call out your name, come and grab it; I'll also tell you your locker number and you can set up your stuff."

After the tedious minutes of getting my timetable, I looked at it to find that there was no mention of this teacher. I was so relieved. Suddenly the announcements came on saying to go to our second block for Tuesday, Social Studies. Finally when the long boring introduction to the 'new' learning system, my next block was… L.A. Of all the blocks that had to be together.

There was more introduction and stuff and then at long last the course I was waiting all day for, Art! Though the introduction was the same every year, it was a heck of a lot better than the others. Lunch was after this block, then Math (which I love) and Health (which I loathe).

Yeah yeah I sound like a nerd. Because I am, in a way… I like learning Science and Math; L.A. is fun for writing random stuff, and Social Studies I kinda hate… especially this year since we're learning about the Economy. Whoo fun…

I finally got home after a tiring first day of school. I decided to cook dinner this time around. It was a silent and peaceful evening and nobody talked very much to me since I told them not to. It was a rough first day…

-8-oo-8-

The next day…

"WAKKA YOU--!" I started cursing in languages I didn't know even existed while throwing the remaining pieces of the foods class kitchen at him. I was glad no teachers where around to hear or see this. Before I could start throwing the knives, Leon and Kratos stopped my arms.

"I'm sorry sir ya!" screamed Wakka.

"Please clam down Kuro," said Kratos.

"Yeah, dammit!" shouted Leon.

"Yaah! Let me at him!" I fumed with a murderous aura surrounding me.

Hao sighed and took the blades from me. "Good grief… It's lunch time right now; we don't need bloodshed at a time like this," he said biting on his sandwich.

"Whoa what happened here?" "Who did this?" "I'm glad no one was hurt." Oh so NOW people notice the exploded room.

Finally after lunch…

"We have Phys.ed next," I groaned walking towards the gym.

"I thought you liked school?" said Hao.

"I didn't say that. Phys.ed is by far my worst subject, even though I do occasionally get an A. But that's not the main reason…"

"Ooh! We are playing Blitzball ya?"

"No, it's DODGEBALL," I grumbled.

"Blitzball, wheee! I love Blitzball!"

The whistle blew and the 'soft' Nerf balls came hailing like giant bullets that would knock the living daylights out of you if they hit. I observed Wakka with utter shock. He caught 5 in his arms and dodged 7. Though it looked more like he was practising ballerina.

"Overdrive time ya?" Wakka smiled and readied for a shot. "Attack Reels!" He stood there as if waiting for something.

"What the hell is he doing?" I asked myself shaking my head. Suddenly I figured out what was wrong. This wasn't the FFX world so no 'reels' appear on screen. If he doesn't choose his attack number using those, then he can't attack. GEEZ! "Urgh… Two! Two! Two!" I shouted.

Wakka snapped back to reality and fired twelve balls knocking out twelve people.

"Head shot!" shouted a student. "Like, twelve! Wakka's out!"

"Just for a moment I actually thought Wakka was useful… Ha ha heh…" I laughed sarcastically. Wakka sat on the side in a fetal position.

The gym teacher blew the whistle. "Alright everyone, go get changed!"

The opposing team cheered as they were victorious. In this type of dodgeball, whoever delivers a head shot is out and the opposing team's players who were out get to come back into play. Unfortunately for me, Wakka was the only one standing at the time he did his overdrive. Hey, I suck at sports. I'm the worst in my entire AC class!

-8-oo-8-

Just one more block to go. It was L.A. The teacher told some interesting stories about herself and at the end, she gave us an assignment. It was like some self introduction written thing due the next few days. When that time came, I walked up to the front and presented my writing.

"My name is Kurosuzaku. I have also another given name meaning humble Phoenix in Vietnamese. I like to watch anime and play various video games all day. I also like to draw as a hobby…"

Leon presented his. "My name is Leon Magnus. What I like to do for leisure is read books. I am also skilled in the art of fencing…" I had to help with his a little. Couldn't have him saying his father was the president of the Oberon Corp.

Then Kratos. "My name is Kratos Aurion. I used to—I mean my parents used to be mercenaries…" That guy… he almost screwed up! Even though what he was going to say was true, it would be weird if someone in grade 9 was a mercenary… It was such a pain writing his introduction…

Finally, Hao. "My name is Hao Asakura. I transferred from Izumo in Japan. I like to compose music and write lyrics in my free time. My twin brother and I were separated at birth due to some… circumstances…" His was the most normal yet accurate of the three since he was from this world in the first place, just a different time and place. Albel didn't have to present his today, thank goodness. I spent the most time trying to write his.

-8-oo-8-

About a month or two later, school turned into hell; more specifically, Phys.ed.

"Social dance?" asked the four of them.

"Think of it as another name for hell," I replied.

"You're getting a little too worked up about this, aren't you?" said Hao.

"No. I've suffered through it for 2 years and it's terrible."

"Well, we'll just have to see," Leon said opening the gym doors. In front of us was the moron… and her million friends.

Hao left abruptly. Ha! Told him it was terrible. The first dance was the Catala something Ranch. Argh…

"Start the music!" shouted one of the teachers. This was the easiest dance in the whole unit thus it was the first one I learned in grade 7. As much as I hated dancing, I caught on very well. Of course, there were other fancy, nonsensical, twirly moves one could do, but I usually only did what was necessary to pass with a B or A. "Ok everyone! Grab a partner; we're going to do the Jive!"

Yargh, one of my most hated dances! I hated all the pair dancing especially since I'm always last to get picked. Kratos, Leon, and Albel were already dragged away by random preppy idiots.

"Kuro."

"Uh. Hao-sama, where were you?"

"I sensed something unusual so I checked it out."

"What is it?" I didn't ask why Kratos told me that he left because he didn't want to dance. I trusted Hao's words.

"It seems like your journey may start again sooner than you think."

"Exactly what's that supposed to mean?"

"It's nothing much to worry about right now. Shall we dance?"

"'kay."

"WHOOHEEE!" Wakka looked like he was enjoying himself, even though it looked like he was half dancing and half dodging invisible blitzballs…

After the horrid hour passed by and ended, we finally got to go home. Oh and Albel DID manage to present his introduction to the class. How did it go? Well…

"Ugh… My name is Albel Nox. AND I'M NOT A F-ING WOMAN!"

"Albel! Watch your language!"

A/N: Ack, my chapters have been getting shorter recently… I'm doing a little bit of a rush job to catch up here… 


	17. Doomie!

Note: (Crossover of a bunch of anime and games) I do not own FF, Shaman King, Black Cat, Star Ocean, or Tales of Destiny. This chapter takes place during chapter 41 of Kiako's story, "Through the Fireplace" I don't own her story either. Sorry for the Out of Character-ness!  
-8-oo-8- This thing is to separate stuff.

Final Fantasy Madness Chapter 17 – Doomie!

"I feel sick," whined Train with a thermometer in his mouth.

"Quit whining," groaned Sven turning and putting the blanket over his head.

"Here, some medicine," said Eve giving them some water and capsules.

"Thanks lil' princess," muttered Train collapsing his head back on the pillow.

Christmas had gone by so quickly. It was already half way through the year for me. And things were getting worse. The fact that the Black Cat gang was here meant that things are starting to break down again. Myself included. It seemed that Kiako gave me her cold virus and it spread to the other people living with me. Only Eve and Hao were unaffected.

I tried my best to help Kratos, Leon, and Albel since they were probably in the worst condition out of all of us. Those three lived in a medieval type world and thus don't get exposed to illnesses similar to this world.

I coughed relentlessly while carrying a tray of food for Train and Sven. Eve took the tray and told me to leave things here to her. I then took a tray of food for Leon.

"You sure you should be walking around, Kuro?" asked Leon lying in the guest room.

"I'm fine," I replied sternly. "As my parents would say, it's proper for the host/hostess to take care of the guests; so shut up, eat, and rest."

"Shouldn't the one be resting you?" asked Hao. "You're in no condition to be taking care of the others when you can barely take care of yourself."

"But--"

"The medicine in this world will surely heal them. Just give it some time."

"But lying there doing nothing is so boring. And there's never anything on TV these days. The Shaman King dubbed version got completely chopped up."

"Indeed, I did get chopped in half…" said Hao regretfully.

"No no, I meant the anime. Here, watch, it should be on right now," I said turning on the TV in the living room. I hopped on the couch to sit down.

TV: ("Yoh, tomorrow you should go shopping for tombstones. You should also buy some extras since your friends will probably not be here for much longer. Ahahahaha!" "Zeke! Come back here!")

"What an insanely lame line…" said Diablos.

"I sound a little different… My name is different too," Hao pointed out.

"This is what I mean by 'chopped up'," I told them. Diablos was still unable to be 'unsummoned' due to the loss of my magic capabilities. Though, I was finally getting used to him coming into conversations out of nowhere. I decided that he would stay out of the picture unless I really needed him in the next adventure we ever have.

"This is utter nonsense," Hao said angrilly turning off the TV.

"See?" I said coughing. "Nothing to watch."

-8-oo-8-

There was an unusual silence for a while.

"Hey."

"What?" I asked.

"Why do you try so hard to exceed expectations?" wondered Hao.

"Weren't you the same way?"

"In some ways, yes. But the world I was living was completely different from this."

"Well then… For me, I want to prove I'm not weak… to myself, and to everyone. To do that, I have to become better than just average. That's why I usually do more than I have to."

'For the sake of having an existence in this world…' I added to myself.  
"I see," said Hao softly. "I'll get you your medicine, the second dose out of three for today"  
"Thanks."

-8-oo-8-

"Hey. Kuro. You awake?" someone said. I was lying on the living room couch. It was already evening.

"Eh.. wha?" I mumbled still dizzy and tired from the medicine. "Who are you?"

"Who am I? Don't you recognize me?" he said smiling. I stared blankly at this person in front of me. He had some strange looking clothes on. Must've stolen them from my brother…

"No," I replied bluntly.

"Then allow me to refresh your memory; I once dwelled below the surface."

"Ah, you're a coal miner who got fired and is now homeless and wants to live here," I said joyfully in a delusional state.

"What… No! Did your sickness mess with your head or something?"

"Well, Kiako is contagious after all and she's the one who made us all sick. Perhaps her stupidity is getting to me, heheh."

"Kiako… Ah, that friend I keep hearing about?" he said looking to the side.

"Yeah that is correct," I coughed, "Mr. Homeless Coal Miner."

"Will you quit calling me that?" he grumbled glaring at me.

"Fine then Diablos," I scowled and turned away. "In any case, I never would've thought that this was your human form… let alone the fact that you had one."

"Hey, wanna hear a story?" he asked suddenly pulling out a dark blue binder.

"I'm not a little kid," I muttered angrilly turning away.

"It's something interesting that YOU wrote."

"What the hell, you've been rummaging through my stuff?"

"It's in French, how would I've known what the heck it was."

I stared at him blankly. "Do you even know how to read French?"

"Yeah of course!" he said cheerfully. "Here look. Wakka and less troize ding-dongs."

"It's 'Wakka and les trois dindons'," I grumbled correcting him.

"Wakka and the Three Turkeys?" said Hao popping up out of nowhere.

"Ah! Where the hell'd you come from!"

"DID SOMEONE SAY TURKEY!" I heard a yell from outside. The whole room was silent for a few moments.

"In any case," I said, "don't read something you can't even read properly, Homeless Coal Miner."

"QUIT CALLING ME THAT!"

Leon walked out of the guest room as if he just woke up. "Seriously you idiots, I can't even get some shut eye with you yammering on out here." Everyone else started to come into the living room too.

"Huuh I'm hungry…" grumbled Train in a dazed state. "Are we having turkey for dinner?"

"That damn cat girl. I'm gonna kill her as soon as I get better…" growled Albel referring to Kiako.

"Train, we don't have turkey," said Sven.

"Killing will not solve anything," said Kratos to Albel.

"That is right," Eve agreed.

"Eve, it's just exaggeration. He's just mad cuz… Aaa… AAACHOO!"

"Train! Watch where you're sneezing!" shouted Sven.

"Then don't stand there, you moron!"

While everyone bickered about nonsensical things, I was able to sneak outside to the back yard in the cold light snow. I only had my pyjamas on and some boots so it was pretty chilly and the snow was quite deep too. The sky was mostly clear as I could see some stars and the full moon. For some reason, the sky had a strange glow to it; kind of a greenish light curtain waving.

"Pretty isn't it, the northern lights." I felt a thick jacket being put over me. "You shouldn't be out here in just pyjamas you know."

"Yeah. I just felt like coming out here."

"Back in Japan, we rarely ever see something like this."

"Same goes here in Canada. Sun spot activity must be high, or the sun had a coronal mass ejection," I said quickly in a bleak tone. Hao looked at me strangely as if he had no clue as to what I said. "Ah, I did a presentation on Northern Lights, that's why I know a bit. The sky is very interesting. There are many things I still haven't seen."

We watched the northern lights travel towards the west until it mostly faded. It was quite nostalgic.

"Shall we head back?" he asked.

"Just one more thing…" I picked up a handful of snow and forming it into a ball. I lashed it at the kitchen window door where everyone else was watching us. I heard some crashing noises inside. "Ugh. I ain't cleaning that up…" I said shaking my head. Just then a snowball smacked the back of my head. I turned to see Diablos smirking and tossing a snowball up and down. Everyone else was gathered behind him. "Hoo… So you wanna fight huh? Bring. It. On!"

I snatched some snow and flung it straight at him. He ducked and it hit Train instead and got all angry. "All right you asked for it!" He was about to throw a snowball when the snow off the roof collapsed onto him.

After some time of random throwing and snow catastrophes, everyone eventually split into two teams. My team consisted of Hao, Train, Leon and myself. The enemy team had recruited Albel, Eve, and Sven. Their leader? Diablos! Kratos apparently ended up as referee of our little war and stood at the deck. The conditions were simple. Whichever side that forces the opposing team to surrender wins; any foreign powers were prohibited and that included shamanic powers. There were fifteen minutes to prepare for battle; that included weapons and battle strategy. No fortress allowed.

"Alright," I said. "As leader, I will be assigning us jobs to make use of the full fifteen minutes."

"Hey, who made you leader?" complained Leon in a low voice.

"That's right," said Train sniffling.

"You have a problem with it!" I fumed. "Out of all of us, I know the enemy best!"

"So, what should we do, leader?" said Hao.

"First of all, we need a strategy. We'll build our weapons first and discuss as we go along."

"Fine," said everyone.

"What should I do ya?"

"You can… …Wakka what the hell are you doing here?" I retorted.

"Hey that's cheating!" shouted Albel.

Kratos hopped off the deck. "Then I shall join your side," he said.

I shook my head. "Of all the… Okay Wakka. Start making snowballs. We don't have much time left. As for strategy, I'm taking on Diablos. The rest of you target whomever you want."

"What kind of strategy is that?" protested Leon.

"I'm taking down the leader. Train probably wants to get back at Sven for cheating and using his attaché case to blast snow in his face."

"Damn right…" grumbled Train said forming another snowball. I glanced to Wakka.

"What the? What the hell are these!" I said picking up a snow apple, a snow banana, a snow doughnut, a snow steak?

"They're snowballs ya? I think I'll make dinner from these later!" said Wakka cheerfully.

"Hey, time's up," said Diablos behind me. I instantly ducked and snatched a snow food and shoved it into his mouth. "Gahmblrff?"

"Oh Train!" Train spun around only to get hit by another snow blast by Sven.

"Ahh! I've had enough of this!" he yelled pulling out something. He said in his cool Black Cat voice. "I came to deliver bad luck… with my SNOW HADES!"

"Ooh it's well crafted," complimented Eve sarcastically. "Can he actually shoot with it?"

Sven laughed, "Of course not! It's made of snow for—gaffgh!"

"Haha how's that!" sneered Train who had just thrown his gun. "Aw man… I spent so long making that too…"

"Heh, you think you're the best kid?" said Albel to Leon. He was holding a snow version of a katana.

"Huh. What're you saying? I AM the best," said Leon drawing out a snow Chaltier. "Prepare yourself!"And so those two started off their little bout, but I couldn't locate my target. Suddenly something grasped my foot. And a head popped out of the snow.

"Gotcha!"

"Have some more food coal miner!" I said shoving a snow turkey in his face. One would think that I, being the artistic one, would make weird things like this.

"Ahh my turkey!" cried Cliff from over the fence.

Wakka had somehow created a snow kitchen in the far corner of my backyard. "Don't ya worry Cliff! I have one prepared right here! Let me turn on the oven"  
Everyone immediately stopped their battling and screamed. "NO!"

-8-oo-8-

Our war had finally concluded in mutual defeat. The victory was technically mine since Wakka was on MY team, but he did end up destroying both sides anyways so it didn't even matter. Everyone had fun to some extent and our illnesses reduced to merely runny noses. The fireplace was lit and bathed the house in warmth. All was silent except the crackling in the fire and the sounds of the TV. There were cups empty of the hot chocolate I made for everyone scattered about the small table. I was about to get up and put them away but Hao gestured to me that he would do it.

(Flashback)

"Kuro."

"What, Diablos?"

"You're quite tough."

"Same to you."

"This war…"

"…the victory…"

"…is yours"  
"…is yours…"

(End Flashback)

A/N: Cliff is obsessed with turkeys, Wakka is obsessed with cooking, Diablos has revealed his human form. I know that Kratos hasn't gotten any lines in this chapter, but that's because he won't be appearing in the sequel. That's right! Sequel! Next chapter is the finale, "To be Reborn – Kuro's Monologue." 


	18. To be Reborn – Kuro’s Monologue

Note: This chapter takes place between chapter 15 and 16.

Final Fantasy Madness Chapter 18 – To be Reborn – Kuro's Monologue

'A few years ago, sometimes, I would give up on life. Things became so ridiculous that I thought if I could just give up, I would stop suffering. Fumbling over those stupid thoughts made it even harder for me to understand anything. When I learned about his past last summer, I came to realize that I should be grateful for being able to live this far, to survive this far. My petty little problems were nothing in comparison to what he went through. Yet, he still strived to accomplish his goal, even after 1000 years of harsh failure.'

'Life is infinitely harder than death, I knew that now. If I chose to die, it would surely show how infinitely weak I was for choosing that effortless path. It was then I decided to keep challenging life to the fullest. Because the thing I hated the most was becoming an insignificant little human, something I would never want to see myself as. But, as a result, I no longer know what my limits are. I guess it's for the best. I don't WANT to know what my limits are …for the sake of becoming stronger.'

'Those few years were my death and rebirth. New beginnings have started, and I've finally put my past behind me… somewhat. I think what he meant by realizing my death was that I must learn to deal with the misery in my life to make myself stronger. Not just for my powers as a black mage, but for me as a human. …I'd like to thank him someday.'

The end… to be reborn. A new pilgrimage.

A/N: Blah. To be continued is sooo overused heheh. As a character of a phoenix, "reborn" seems to fit a lot better. For those who know me better, you should know who 'he' is. Next chapter! Ah! There is no next chapter… Er… next story, Kiako's fireplace acts up again! Oh nos! You know what that means…  
I hope you all enjoyed reading this fanfic. I appreciated all the support anyone has given! 


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